Stress distribution in a zirconia one-piece dental implant

Abstract:

Nowadays, all-ceramic dental prosthesis are increasingly performed in the dental practice, mostly due to a superior esthetics and to higher developments in the mechanical properties of this materials. When edentulous spaces exist, dentist has the possibility to place dental implants to replace the roots, which are usually made in titanium, a material proved to have outstanding biological and mechanical properties in the oral cavity. However, occurrences of cases of titanium allergy, and the desire to avoid metals in the oral cavity mostly due to biological and esthetic reasons, lead to the development of zirconia implants. This ceramic implants allows dental practitioners to perform all-ceramic dental rehabilitations (implants + prosthesis). Although some studies reveal high clinical success-rates there are not many researches on the stress distribution on zirconia implants. The aim of this research was to perform a numerical stress analysis in a zirconia dental implant virtually inserted in a maxilla bone.