Ultrasonic Evaluation of Dental Implant Stability

Yoann Hériveaux , Vu-Hieu Nguyen , Romain Vayron (1) , Guillaume Haiat

1 LAMIH - Laboratoire d'Automatique, de Mécanique et d'Informatique industrielles et Humaines - UMR 8201

Failures of dental implants are often related to issues related to implant stability and to a bad timing of the loading protocol. However, surgical procedures are not standardized and many surgeons still use empirical methods to determine implant stability. Therefore, the development of quantitative methods to follow osseointegration processes is required. Quantitative ultrasound (QUS) is a promising technique to retrieve information on the biomechanical properties of the bone–implant interface (BII). This chapter reviews various studies investigating QUS approaches to assess dental implant stability. In vivo studies evidenced that the material properties of periprosthetic bone tissue increase during healing, as well as the bone-implant contact (BIC), which leads to a decrease of the gap of acoustical properties at the BII. Therefore, the reflection coefficient of the BII decreases as a function of healing time, which was evidenced in a standardized situation. Based on these results, a 10 MHz QUS device consisting of an ultrasound transducer screwed in an implant was validated in vitro using cylindrical implants, and then dental implants were inserted in biomaterials, bone-mimicking phantoms, and bone tissue. A comparison between QUS and resonance frequency analysis (RFA) techniques showed a better sensitivity of QUS to changes of the parameters related to the implant stability. Acoustical modeling of the ultrasonic propagation in bone-dental implant systems was then performed to improve the performances of the QUS device. It produced evidence of the effects of different parameters such as bone mechanical properties and implant geometry on the ultrasonic response of the implant. Eventually, the QUS device was validated through in vivo preclinical studies. QUS were shown to be more sensitive to changes of periprosthetic bone tissue during healing than RFA, and the estimation of the healing time using QUS was 10 times more accurate than using RFA. Finally, perspectives of clinical applications are given.

Mots clés: Quantitative ultrasound; Bone–implant interface; Implant stability; Osseointegration; Decision support system

Domaines: Mécanique [physics.med-ph]

Yoann Hériveaux, Vu-Hieu Nguyen, Romain Vayron, Guillaume Haiat. Ultrasonic Evaluation of Dental Implant Stability. Dental Ultrasound in Periodontology and Implantology, Springer International Publishing, pp.197-213, 2020, 978-3-030-51287-3. ⟨10.1007/978-3-030-51288-0_10⟩. ⟨hal-03432579⟩