ABSTRACT
This study concerns the effects of different drilling parameters of pilot drills and twist drills on the temperature rise of alveolar bones during dental implant procedures. The drilling parameters studied here include the feed rate and rotation speed of the drill. The bone temperature distribution was analyzed through experiments and numerical simulations of the drilling process. In this study, a three dimensional (3D) elasto-plastic dynamic finite element model (DFEM) was proposed to investigate the effects of drilling parameters on the bone temperature rise. In addition, the FE model is validated with drilling experiments on artificial human bones and porcine alveolar bones. The results indicate that 3D DFEM can effectively simulate the bone temperature rise during the drilling process. During the drilling process with pilot drills or twist drills, the maximum bone temperature occurred in the region of the cancellous bones close to the cortical bones. The feed rate was one of the important factors affecting the time when the maximum bone temperature occurred. Our results also demonstrate that the elevation of bone temperature was reduced as the feed rate increased and the drill speed decreased, which also effectively reduced the risk region of osteonecrosis. These findings can serve as a reference for dentists in choosing drilling parameters for dental implant surgeries.
