Finite element analysis of 3D-printed personalized titanium plates for mandibular angle fracture

Abstract

This paper discussed the size of 3 D-printed personalized titanium plates that can gain maximum stability of mandibular fracture and minimize stress shielding through finite element analysis. A 3 D virtual model of mandible with mandibular angle fracture was created from the CT data of patient. 3 D-printed personalized titanium plates varying in length and thickness were designed, and finite element analysis was performed under different loading conditions and fracture healing periods. After that, the stress distribution and deformation of the mandible with gonial fracture could be observed, and the stress shielding rate could be obtained. Finally, SPSS21.0 was used for statistical analysis. The results of finite element analysis indicated that as the thickness of titanium plates and the healing time decreased, the maximum displacement increased, under a certain condition in which the pore size, the width, the hole distance and the bridge spacing were 2.0 mm, 4.0 mm, 6.0 mm, 12.0 mm, respectively. What’s more, in this condition, the thicker the titanium plate and the shorter the healing time were, the higher the stress shielding was at central occlusion. When the thickness of the personalized 3 D-printed titanium plate was 1.0 mm, the maximum displacement tended to be stable and the stress shielding was minimized. It can not only improve the bone stability after tension band fixation, but also minimize the stress shielding, which is expected to expand the indications of tension band fixation.

Keywords:

• Finite element
• Mandibular angle fracture
• 3D printing
• stress shielding
• titanium plate

Acknowledgements

We want to thank imaging department of the Second Hospital of Shandong University for providing the CT images.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Yan Li, Hui Li, Qingguo Lai, Runqi Xue, Kaiwen Zhu, Yanwei Deng. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Yan Li, Hui Li. And all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Availability of data and material

Any data that supported the findings of this study were included within the article.

Code availability

The code can be made available by the authors to any researcher.

Consent to participate

The authors consent to participate.

Consent for publication

The authors consent to participate.

Ethics approval

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Second Hospital of Shandong University. It was carried out in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in this study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by grants from the Clinical Research for Crossing Item of Shandong University (grant no. 2020SDUCRCB001), the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (grant no. ZR2020MH180), the Rongxiang Regeneration Medicine Fund of Shandong University (grant no. 2019SDRX-11) and the Science and Technology Development Plan of Jinan City (grant no. 201805041).