Stress distribution and failure analysis comparison between Zirconia and Titanium dental implants

Orthodontic Titanium implants are the most employed and well investigated in literature. In fact, thanks to its mechanical properties and biocompatibility with the human bone, this material represents one of the best solutions to improve the osseointegration process and implant life. In recent years, the attention was shifted to soft tissue integration which has led to a new solution in terms of implant design and material. According to recent researches, metal-free implants, like Zirconia implant, can improve the biological width and accelerate the osseointegration process. Beyond the advantage in biological terms, the use of Zirconia leads to a different mechanical behaviour concerning Titanium, in particular on the cortical bone. In this work, the effect that the material change have on the stress distribution around the cortical bone has been analyzed through a Finite Element Analysis (FEA). According to literature of recent years, dental prosthesis of this study has been tested using a compression load applied to the post surface with three different inclinations. The simulation results show that the stress evaluated for Zirconia implant are more distributed around the cortical bone while the stress evaluated for the Titanium implant is extended more over the whole implant. These results confirm that the use of Zirconia could improve the osseointegration process and guarantee a longer life of the implant.