A custom-made temporomandibular joint prosthesis for fabrication by selective laser melting: Finite element analysis

Abstract

A novel and custom-made selective laser melting (SLM) 3D-printed alloplastic temporomandibular joint (TMJ) prosthesis is proposed. The titanium-6aluminium-4vanadium (Ti-6Al-4V) condyle component and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fossa component comprised the total alloplastic TMJ replacement prosthesis. For the condyle component, an optimized tetrahedral open-porous scaffold with combined connection structures, i.e. an inlay rod and an onlay plate, between the prosthesis and remaining mandible was designed. The trajectory of movement of the intact condyle was assessed via kinematic analysis to facilitate the design of the fossa component. The behaviours of the intact mandible and mandible with the prosthesis were compared. The biomechanical behaviour was analysed by assessing the stress distribution on the prosthesis and strain distribution on the mandible. After muscle force was applied, the magnitude of the compressive strain on the condyle neck of the mandible with the prosthesis was lower than that on the condyle neck of the intact mandible, with the exception of the area about the screws; additionally, the magnitude of the strain at the scaffold-bone interface was relatively high.

Keywords: Biomechanics; Finite element analysis; Joint prosthesis model; Temporomandibular joint.