No materials placed within a living tissue can be considered to be completely inert. However, stable ceramics do not suffer from corrosion or degeneration as do metals or plastics. Extensive progress in ceramic technology has developed new functional bioceramics with a high degree of biocompatibility or bioinertness, or with bioadhesiveness with bioactive and biodegradable characteristics which can accelerate new bone growth. However, ceramics with a characteristically high Young's modulus are aptto produce biomechanical unbalance at the implant-tissue interface and cause chronic mechanical irritation which introduces tissue inflammation and probably conceals neoplastigenicity. To prevent such mechanical irritation, ceramic implants should be fixed strongly into bone tissue. Porous ceramics are effective in giving reliable fixation and have produced many successful oral and orthopaedic implants to date.
This study delineates the effects of varying the root length as well as incorporating a soft pseudo periodonal ligament on the overall stress distribution for each of five different implant materials and one implant design.
Five different implant materials and three different geometries of ankylosed single-tooth implants were investigated. The stress distributions within and around the implants were determined by finite element analysis. Results show that the optimal combination of implant material and geometry can reduce implant and alveolar stresses by a factor of three when compared to an arbitrary implant design.
