Effects of material properties and hole designs of the jig on the fatigue life of dental implants

A purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of material properties and hole designs of the jig on fatigue test results of dental implants. An implant fatigue test method is described in ISO14801, which requires that the jig should firmly hold the implant and the elastic modulus of the jig should be more than 3 GPa. However, these requirements are insufficient to represent a dental implant in the jawbone as the fixture is osseointegrated in the jawbone that comprises of the cortical bone and the cancellous bone. In this paper, three different materials for the jig and two different hole designs of the jig for holding the implant were examined in FE simulations and fatigue tests. From the simulation and test results, the effects of material properties and the hole designs of the jig were evaluated in the light of fatigue life of dental implants.