Low-Invasive Diagnosis of Metallic Prosthesis Osseointegration by Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy

In this paper, a digital-measurement method for low-invasive clinical diagnosis of metallic prosthesis osseointegration is proposed. Electrical impedance spectroscopy is exploited to characterize the quality of the tissue at the interface between the bone and the prosthesis. The method overcomes current resolution limits of biological electrical-impedance analysis by means of several polarization levels. Electrical modeling through an equivalent circuit is used to define a quantitative index of osseointegration. In vitro experimental results of the proposed method validation show its sensitivity and its effectiveness in low-depth prostheses, such as in dentistry applications.