Use of the Electro-Mechanical Impedance Method for theAssessment of Dental Implant Stability

The robustness and reliability of the Electro-Mechanical Impedance (EMI) method to assess dental prostheses stability is presented. The study aim at addressing an increasing need in the biomedical area where robust, reliable, and non-invasive methods to assess the bone-interface of dental and orthopedic implants are increasingly demanded for clinical diagnosis and direct prognosis. In this study two different dental screws were entrenched in polyurethane foams and immersed in a solution of nitric acid to allow material degradation, inversely simulating a bone-healing process. This process was monitored by bonding a Piezoceramic Transducer (PZT) to the implant and measuring the admittance of the PZT over time. To simulate healing, a second set of experiments was conducted. It consisted of placing four dental screws inside a joint compound specimen and observing the setting of the fresh compound allocated in the alveolus containing each implant. In all cases it was found that the PZT’s conductance and the statistical features associated with the analysis of the admittance signatures were sensitive to the degradation or the setting process.