Development of implant movement checker for determining dental implant stability

Noninvasive and nondestructive mobility assessment of dental implants is very important and useful for dental implantation diagnostic-aids. The development of implant movement (IM) checker based on microcontroller is presented in this paper. Data acquisition system and bender-type piezoelectric probe were used to improve measurement quality to the original tooth mobility (TM) tester. The adoption of a microcontroller and the use of a dental drill-sized measuring probe were sufficient in the reproducibility and reliability of the IM checker. When the implant was subjected to a constant force and amplitude, the acceleration of the model was detected using the measuring probe. The data acquisition system controlled for obtaining the appropriate acceleration signals based on the preload detection during measurement. Dental implant models of Molteno® and Rigolac® were made at different stiffness and were used to verify the reliability and validity of measurements. The values of measurements obtained by the IM checker were reliable and precise. The maximum error for perpendicular measurements was less than 12% measured by a new operator and decreased to 2% by an experienced operator. The IM checker was applied to monitor the stability of dental implantation, which compared the relative IM score of the new 5⌉ implant with the adjacent old 6⌉ implant that had been used functionally for 3 years.