IMPLANT MADE OF FIBRE-REINFORCED PLASTIC

Abstract

A customizable implant made of plastic including a thermoplastic which is reinforced with long fibers arranged multidirectionally in a targeted manner and has a modulus of elasticity E of 10-70 GPa is provided. A system for producing a customizable implant including a device for collecting patient data regarding the environment into which an implant is to be inserted, a computer program for creating a model for a customized implant based on the patient data collected, and a device for producing the customized implant based on the calculated model by means of 3D printing and/or laser sintering is also provided.

Claims

1. An implant made of a plastic material, comprising a thermoplastic material which is reinforced with multidirectionally arranged long fibers and has a modulus of elasticity E of 30-50 GPa, wherein the reinforcing fibers have a diameter of 4 to 10 m and the multidirectional arrangement of the fibers is calculated.

2. The implant according to claim 1, wherein at least one of orientation of the fibers, fiber content, type of fibers or fiber diameter differs in a plurality of sections within the implant.

3. The implant according to claim 1, wherein the thermoplastic material is PEEK.

4. The implant according to claim 1, wherein the reinforcing fibers are carbon fibers, glass fibers, zirconia fibers, alumina fibers, silicon carbide fibers, or mixtures thereof.

5. The implant according to claim 1, wherein the reinforcing fibers are arranged multidirectionally in a targeted manner.

6. The implant according to claim 1, wherein a fiber content of the plastic material is 10-80% by volume.

7. The implant according to claim 1, wherein the fiber-reinforced thermoplastic material contains compound additives of titanium dioxide, magnesium oxide, magnesium sulfate, hydroxyl apatite, tricalcium phosphate, bioglass, calcium sulfate, zinc phosphate, zinc oxide, and/or magnesium phosphate or a combination thereof.

8. The implant according to claim 7, wherein the compound additives are present only in a surface area of the implant up to a depth of 200 m.

9. The implant according to claim 1, wherein the implant is a dental implant.

10. The implant according to claim 1, wherein the implant is produced by a 3D printing method, a laser sintering method, or a combination thereof.

11. The implant according to claim 1, wherein the implant is produced by a braiding method, wherein the reinforcing fibers are placed onto a shape-imparting core as a braided fiber arrangement and then enclosed by plastic material.

12. A system for producing a customized implant having a modulus of elasticity E of 30-50 GPa according to claim 1, the system comprising: a. a device for collecting patient data regarding an environment into which the implant is to be inserted, wherein the patient data particularly includes any of: i. a force applied under mechanical stress, ii. a bone density, and iii. a spatial structure of the environment, b. a computer program for creating a model for the implant based on the patient data collected, wherein the model includes: i. a three-dimensional structure of the implant, ii. a material composition including a thermoplastic material, reinforcing long fibers having a diameter of 4 to 10 m, and, optionally, compound additives, and iii. a multidirectional arrangement of the reinforcing long fibers and optionally of the compound additives are calculated, and c. a device for producing the customized implant based on the created model, the customized implant being produced by 3D printing, laser sintering, or a combination thereof.

13. A device for producing a customized implant having a modulus of elasticity E of 30-50 GPa according to claim 1, the device comprising: a. a unit for collecting patient data regarding an environment into which the implant is to be inserted, wherein the patient data particularly includes any of: i. a force applied under mechanical stress, ii. a bone density, and iii. a spatial structure of the environment, b. a unit for creating a model for the implant based on the patient data collected, wherein the model includes: i. a three-dimensional structure of the implant, ii. a material composition including a thermoplastic material, reinforcing long fibers having a diameter of 4 to 10 m, and, optionally, compound additives, and iii. a multidirectional arrangement of the reinforcing long fibers and optionally of the compound additives are calculated, and c. a unit for producing the customized implant based on the created model, the customized implant being produced by 3D printing, laser sintering, or a combination thereof.

14. A method for producing a customized implant having a modulus of elasticity E of 30-50 GPa according to claim 1, comprising: a. collecting patient data regarding an environment into which the implant is to be inserted, wherein the patient data particularly includes any of: i. a force applied under mechanical stress, ii. a bone density, and iii. a spatial structure of the environment, b. creating a model for the customized implant based on the patient data collected, wherein the model includes: i. a three-dimensional structure of the implant, ii. a material composition including a thermoplastic material, reinforcing long fibers having a diameter of 4 to 10 m, and, optionally, compound additives, and iii. a multidirectional arrangement of the reinforcing long fibers and optionally of the compound additives are calculated, and c. producing the customized implant based on the created model by 3D printing, laser sintering, or a combination thereof.

15. The implant according to claim 1, wherein a fiber content of the plastic material is 40-60% by volume.

Description

SPECIAL DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Figures:

[0269] FIG. 1:

[0270] shows a longitudinal section through a one-component implant (1-C) made of 55-CFR-PEEK and a two-component implant (2-C) which consists of an implant core made of 55-CFR-PEEK and an implant shell surrounding the core made of a titanium oxide filled PEEK.

[0271] FIG. 2:

[0272] shows the structure of the models for a 1-C and 2-C implant, each of which being embedded in the bone segment of a lower jaw, which consists of a cortical bone layer and a cancellous bone portion, which were supplemented with an abutment, an abutment screw, and an implant crown.

[0273] FIG. 3:

[0274] shows the predominantly hexahedral finite element mesh.

[0275] FIG. 4:

[0276] shows the introduction of a load of 100 N according to ISO 14801:2007 at 30 to the longitudinal axis of the implant.

EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

[0277] A finite element analysis was performed to examine the mechanical effects on the peri-implant bone when exposing a PEEK implant reinforced with randomly multidirectionally arranged continuous carbon fibers (fiber content approx. 55%) according to the invention to stress compared to a PEEK implant according to WO 2014/198421 A1.

Material and Methods:

[0278] Two simplified cylindrical implant models were created. The first implant model only consisted of one component (1-C) which was made of PEEK reinforced with 55% randomly multidirectionally arranged continuous carbon fibers (55-CFR-PEEK) and matched an implant according to the invention.

[0279] The second implant model consisted of two components (2-C): An implant core made of the same PEEK type as the 1-C implant model (55-CFR-PEEK) and an implant shell which had a layer thickness of 0.5 mm in the surface area of the implant and consisted of a TiO.sub.2-filled PEEK. FIG. 1 shows a longitudinal sectional view of the two implants examined, 1-C and 2-C.

[0280] The two implants 1-C and 2-C were each embedded in a bone segment and provided with an abutment, an abutment screw, and an implant crown of a first lower molar (FIG. 2). The implant crown and the abutment consisted of the same TiO.sub.2-filled PEEK type as the implant shell of the 2-C implant. The abutment screw was also made of 55-CFR-PEEK.

[0281] Table 1 summarizes the materials used. It was assumed for the analysis that the materials were isotropic and linear-elastic.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Properties of the materials used. Material Modulus E [GPa] Poisson Ratio TiO.sub.2-filled PEEK (20% TiO.sub.2) 4.1 0.4 PEEK reinforced with 55% randomly 40 0.35 multidirectionally arranged continuous carbon fibers (55-CFR-PEEK) Cortical bone 13.4 0.3 Cancellous bone 1.37 0.31

[0282] Then the joint properties between the contact pairs of the components were defined (Table 2).

TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Joint condition between individual contact pairs. Joint Contact pair Condition 1 Crown Abutment Bonded contact, perfectly bonded 2 Screw head Abutment Rough contact 3 Screw head washer Abutment Bonded contact, perfectly bonded 4 Screw shaft Abutment Rough contact 5 Abutment Implant Rough contact 6 Screw thread Female implant Bonded contact, perfectly thread bonded 7 Implant core Implant shell Bonded contact, perfectly bonded 8 Implant shell Bone Rough contact 9 Cortical bone Cancellous bone Bonded contact, perfectly bonded

[0283] Then a predominantly hexahedral finite element mesh was created with element types Tet10, Hex20, Wed15, and pyr13 and a refinement in the interface regions. For the C-1 model, it consisted of 137,425 elements and 498,543 nodes, and for the C-2 model, it consisted of 143,210 elements and 530,334 nodes (FIG. 3).

[0284] Then a load of 100 N was introduced into the implant crown at an angle of 30 to the longitudinal axis of the implant in accordance with ISO 14801:2007 (FIG. 4), and the surface contact pressures and deformations in the peri-implant bone were analyzed.

Findings:

[0285] The findings of surface contact pressures and deformations in the peri-implant bone when exposing the implants to stress are summarized in Table 3.

TABLE-US-00003 TABLE 3 Summary of findings for the maximum overall deformation of the peri-implant bone and the maximum contact pressures at the implant-bone interface at variable moduli E of the PEEK portions reinforced with continuous carbon fibers One-component implant (1-C) Two-component implant (2-C) Maximum Maximum contact contact Modulus E of the Maximum overall pressure at the Maximum overall pressure at the 55-CFR-PEEK deformation of the implant-bone deformation of implant-bone portion bone interface the bone interface [MPa] [m] [MPa] [m] [MPa] 40 9.4 51.9 11 56.7

CONCLUSIONS

[0286] It was surprisingly found that a one-component implant (1-C) according to the invention, when exposed to a load, has advantageous properties with respect to its impact on the bone compared to a two-component implant (2-C) according to WO 2014/198421 A1. When the 1-C implant was used, the maximum overall deformation of the bone was lower and the maximum contact pressure at the implant-bone interface was reduced compared to a 2-C implant.