On the use of the electromechanical impedance technique for the assessment of dental implant stability: Modeling and experimentation

We propose the electromechanical impedance technique to monitor the stability of dental implants. The technique consists of bonding one wafer-type piezoelectric transducers to the implant system. When subjected to an electric field, the transducer induces structural excitations which, in turn, affect the transducer’s electrical admittance. The hypothesis is that the health of the bone surrounding the implant affects the sensor’s admittance. A three-dimensional finite element model of a transducer bonded to the abutment of a dental implant placed in a host bone site was created to simulate the progress of the tissue healing that occurs after surgery. The healing was modeled by changing the Young’s modulus of the bone–implant interface. It was found that as the Young’s modulus of the interface increases, the electromechanical characteristic of the transducer changes. Then, the model was used to interpret the experimental results relative to a sensor bonded to an abutment screwed to implants secured into bovine bone samples. The results show that the electromechanical impedance technique can be used to monitor the stability of dental implants although more research is warranted to examine the repeatability of the methodology and its advantage with respect to existing commercial systems.