Background: The use of dental implants has expanded over the past decades in edentulous and partially edentulous patients, however the choice of using self-supporting implants or implants together with natural teeth in anatomically limited areas remains controversial. While splinting the implant and tooth is a rational alternative in some clinical situations, the dissimilar mobility patterns of the osseointegrated implants and natural teeth make the biomechanical behavior of the entire system complicated. In addition, tooth-implant supported FPDs when an implant serves as a pier abutment should be evaluated biomechanically. The aim of this study is to compare the stress transmission characteristics of a rigid connector and an anterior cantilever designed implant supported FPDs when an implant serves as a pier abutment. Materials and Methods: In this study, mandible bone models were generated to represent 2 different prosthesis design (1 rigid connector and 1 anterior cantilever). Each design received two different loading protocol, including vertical and oblique (30�). A three-dimensional FEA was used to evaluate the stress patterns of the prosthesis designs. Results: The minimum principal stress values in cortical bone, the von Misses stress values in implant and metal framework as a result of the applied forces were measured.Conclusions: Within the limitations of this study, numerical data showed that the anterior cantilever design caused more stress around the implant and the the rigid design lead to more stress around the canine tooth which has the less periodontal support compared to molar tooth. Key words: Tooth-implant connection, rigid connector, pier abutment, finite element analysis.

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