Effect of Varying Inter-Implant Distance in a Two Implant-Three Prosthetic Unit Dental System: A Finite Element Analysis Study

The objective of this study was to calculate the stress produced at the implants as well as at the bone-implant interface under axial or vertical, oblique and para-axial loading due to different distances between the implants using FEA. Research was carried out on a two implant-three prosthesis unit system. Modeling of each component was done in CAM software SOLIDWORKS. After the assembly was done, ANSYS 14.0 was used for the finite element analysis. Material properties were assigned to every component and all the loading conditions were applied individually. Von Mises stress values have been evaluated at the implants and the jawbone. Since the jawbone is made up of cortical and cancellous bone, stresses were calculated on both of them individually. Our study revealed that oblique loading was the most critical loading followed by para-axial and axial loading, maximum stresses were produced in the prosthesis followed by implants, cortical bone and cancellous bone. Moreover the buccal side of the entire system was more affected than the lingual side.