Dental Research Overview

Research on the mechanics of eating and other oral functions help dentists and researchers better understand how to optimize dental implants. The increasing use in dental implants increases the need to properly evaluate the mechanical properties to ensure their function and longevity. TestResources provides the means to properly and effectively characterize the mechanical properties of dental implants.

A dental implant is a device normally crafted from titanium that is attached in, on, or through the mandible to be used as a support for a prosthetic tooth. The three major forms of dental implants are endosseous which are placed in the bone, subperiosteal which lie on top of the bone, and transosteal which pass through the bone. The most widely used dental implant is a root-form endosseous implant which is screwed into the jawbone and osseointegrates with the jaw. Dental implants can be used to support crowns, bridges, dentures, or can be used as anchorage for orthodontic tooth movement.

Testing Standards
The ISO 14801 standard specifies a method of fatigue testing of single post endosseous dental implants of the transmucosal type and their premanufactured prosthetic components. It is most useful in comparing different designs and sizes of edosseous dental implants. Testing shall be performed on specimens that are representative of the finished device, a multi-part endosseous implant shall be tested as assembled according to its intended use, and testing shall be carried out for the worst-case condition. This standard is not applicable for predicting in vivo performance of the endosseous dental implant. If the testing frequency is less than or equal to 2 Hz the testing shall be conducted for 2 million cycles and if the testing frequency is above 2 Hz the testing shall be conducted to 5 million cycles.

The FDA recommends that mechanical testing of dental implants mimic actual intraoral as possible with both compressive and shear forces with no lateral constraint occurring. If corrosion fatigue is expected to occur or if the system includes polymeric components it is recommended to perform fatigue testing in normal saline or a physiological medium at 37ºC and at 2 Hz frequency and the maximum load the device can withstand for 2 million cycles should be determined. All other systems can be tested in air at 20°C and at 3-15Hz frequency for 5 million cycles.

Mechanical Tests

Fatigue – The fatigue test entails simulating the functional load on the dental implant under the worst-case condition.
Flexural – A static flexural test is used to determine the maximum strength of the dental implant.
Torque– A torque test determines the torque necessary to strip the head of the dental implant.
Compression – A compression test consists of compressing the dental implant longitudinally until it ruptures.

TestResources offers a wide range of testing machines and grips to be able to test for fatigue, flexural, compression, and torque mechanical properties of dental implants according to ISO and FDA standards. Our 800L and 840L series offer fatigue test machines for compression, axial fatigue, flexural bend, and tensile testing, our 311R series offers a computerized test machine for tensile, flexural, and compression testing and for static torsion testing the 160QT series.