The Mechanobiology of Bone Tissue around Implants

Abstract

Since the bone tissue around osseointegrated implants directly supports masticatory loads, it is extremely important to understand the response of bone tissue to loading, the so-called mechanobiology of implants.

Previously, our series of animal experiments revealed that repetitive loading on implants causes anabolic effects on not only bone volume but also bone quality, including collagen fiber, biological apatite orientation, and number of osteocytes. Furthermore, the specific thread design could control bone quality such as collagen fiber, biological apatite, and osteocyte network alignment according to the loading direction. It is well known that bone structure and volume can adapt to mechanical loading, known as Wolff’s Law and Mechanostat Theory. In other words, the mechanobiology of bone volume as a scalar quantity has been developed into the mechanobiology of bone quality as a vector quantity.

In the current article, we share some interesting results of research on peri-implant bone mechanobiology and also introduce the development of bone quality-controlled implant designs, the scientific evidence of early loading of the implant, and a novel approach to peri-implantitis based on the mechanobiology of bone quality.