Thermal-mechanical study of functionally graded dental implants with the finite element method.

This article investigates the thermal-mechanical performance of hydroxyapatite/titanium (HA/Ti) functionally graded (FG) dental implants with the three-dimensional finite element method. The stresses induced by occlusal force for the present HA/Ti FG implant are calculated to compare with the corresponding stresses for the titanium dental implant. Thermal-mechanical effect of temperature variation due to daily oral activity is also studied. The HA/Ti FG dental implant performance is evaluated against the maximum von Mises stress, which is the general performance indicator, the first principal/tensile stress for mechanical failure of implant-bone-bond and the third principal/compressive stress for bone absorption. Simulation results indicate that under the influence of occlusal force only, the FG implants with different HA fraction along the implant length perform almost equally well, while the titanium implant sustains much higher von Mises stress. However, when thermal stress is also considered, the FG implant having HA fraction exponential index of m = 2 with temperature decrease of 20 degrees C yields the highest first principal and von Mises stresses among all the FG and titanium implants.