Project DentalFEM

 

Project Type: Twin AE

Start Date: 01/10/21 – End date: 30/09/22; 

Duration: 12 Months 

Full Budget: 142,343.75 Euros – DigiFed Contribution: 99,115.625 Euros

Status: ongoing

Countries involved:                Spain,              Romania and             Hungary

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Challenge

Dental implant treatments have revolutionised dental care, but there is a need for data-driven planning tools for its interpretation and application during implant surgery, instead of procedures based only on experience in order to minimise failure rates. The macro-design of dental implants determines their stability and their capacity to withstand the functional loads. DentalFEM aims to be the first software tool in the market for optimised implantology procedures based on mathematical methods. An accurate digital replica of the patient’s oral cavity (digital twin) will be created and forces acting on implant, teeth and jawbone will be obtained by means of numerical simulations based on the Finite Element Method (FEM). Different implant types and acting forces can be computationally tested. Hence, the result of an implant procedure will be no longer based only on intuition or experience of the dentist, but on quantitative and qualitative information based on physics and mathematics. 

 

Solution provided by the project – technology used 

DentalFEM software has integrated under a single tool all the stages needed to carry out a simulation of a patient specific dental implantology procedure:

1. Anonymized cone-beam computed tomography  (CBCT) scan of the patient is uploaded to our web platform

2. Segmentation on relevant structures is carried out by means of Machine Learning

3. Obtention of a 3D digital twin of patient’s oral cavity 

4. The virtual oral cavity is discretised using a mesh

5. Structural response of the implant-supported prosthetic tooth is obtained by solving solid mechanics equations with FEM

6. The software produces data related to the mechanical performance of the implant placement (stress/strain, safety coefficient…). Results are analysed within our customised web viewer

7. Different methodologies and implant designs can be tested computationally (virtual surgery) in order to find the optimum mechanical performance for this patient

8. Real surgery can be trustily performed based on computational tests

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