Resonance frequency detection of dental implant stability with various bone defects: In-vitro experiments

Resonance frequency analysis (RFA) has been applied to detect the stability and boundary condition of the dental implant osseointegration in several investigations. Its clinical relating application was generally accepted. Nevertheless, these studies only presented the overall phenomena of osseointegration around the implant and were unable to diagnose the location of the bone defect. Therefore, the aim of this study refers to an effective detection technique for locating the position of bone defect surrounding the dental implant. Various in-vitro bone defect models composed of a dental implant, a healing abutment and an artificial bone block were used to perform the experimental modal analysis (EMA). The bone defect model was excited by an impacted hammer; induced vibration response was acquired by an accelerometer and processed through a spectrum analyzer. The statistical analysis was used to generalize the relationship between the obtained RF values and various bone defects from experimental results. The finding of this study indicates that RF decreases remarkably when the range and depth of defects increase. Thus, the direction of the defect is decided first by RF variations of the sound and defective side, and the position of the defect is discriminated later by RF differences of various bone defect models. This conclusion assists doctors in diagnosis after surgery.