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The purpose of this study was to investigate the fatigue life of an endosseous root-form dental implant using finite element analysis. A conventional Brånemark dental implant system was redesigned to utilize the biocompatible, lightweight magnesium alloy coating which promotes bone growth.
ANSYS Workbench 11.0 was used to generate a three-dimensional mesh of a model created in Pro Engineer with the actual size specifications. Regulations and schematic of test set-up from ISO 14801 - "Fatigue test for endosseous dental implants" were strictly followed to simulate the fatigue test. To validate the credibility of calculated fatigue life, actual prototypes were built with the design specifications and tested using Material Test System 810.
The main advantages of performed computer simulations are that it is fast, efficient and cheap. A comparison of the calculated fatigue life with experimental fatigue life data displayed the accuracy and reliability of the computer simulation method.