ABSTRACT

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is a very effective tool for predicting the biomechanical behavior of various implant designs as well as clinical factors on implant success. FEA is used extensively to study stress/strain behavior of the mandible, but most of these research focused on analyzing the total force exerted by the various teeth on the jaw bone. Not much has been reported on simulating the mandible with different materials properties in different areas base on its functioning mechanisms in order to understand which material property would be most appropriate for replacing specific part of a damaged bone. With the advent of AM technologies, it is possible to produce implants with graded properties. The simulation aims at obtaining foreknowledge of manufacturing advanced light-weight implants with suitable biomechanical properties. An advanced CAD model is therefore proposed based on the functioning requirement for jaw bone.