Identifying the functional aspects of dental implant systems is essential for the long-term success of restorations. The occurrence of screw loosening and screw fracture has increased interest in different implant system abutment. Objective: The effect of a cantilever force applied to the implant-abutment on different types of commercially available dental implants was studied to determine the influence of joint design and material on the structural deformability of the systems. Methods: Four different types of endosteal-designs were tested including an internal connection: (Replace Select™ with TorqTight™ screw, Crystal-Seal® with collet locking connection), and external hex: (Steri-Oss® with TorqTight™ and 3i® with gold plated screw). 32 donated specimens were tested in four test groups of (8 specimens each). The samples and their respective screw-retained interlocking single tooth abutments were grouped depending on the type connection and tested in a bending mode (shear/cantilever forces) with load applied perpendicular to the abutment using an Instron universal test machine. Samples fixed and aligned were loaded at a crosshead speed of 0.125 cm/second and photographs taken at 2X in different load/time intervals to note the various stages of joint opening. Each design was subjected to increasing magnitudes of force, while observing and recording abutment-to-implant joint opening. Groups were analyzed using ANOVA and Fisher's PLSD test. Significance was set to alpha=0.05. Results: The mean in Newtons force (N±SD) required to open the implant-abutment joint was recorded by implant systems as follows: Steri-Oss® 105.4(±10.2), Replace Select™ 130.3(±11.1), Crystal-Seal® 236.2(±7.5) and 3i® 408.3(±7.5). All groups were significantly different (p<0.01). Conclusions: The outcome of this study showed a rank ordering by implant type with significant differences between forces required to produce implant to abutment connection joint opening among implant systems tested.

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