## 4 Discussion  
The diameter of the implant platform is the same (3.9 mm) for both the RP4.3 and RP5.0 implants, and so using a prosthetic abutment of the same diameter (3.4 mm) results in the same degree of platform switching (0.5 mm). This affects the marginal bone height [19; 23], and results in the same platform switching components for RP4.3 and RP5.0 implants. For NP3.5 implants the degree of platform switching is also 0.5 mm, with a platform and implant diameter of 3.5 mm. When comparing the RP4.3 and RP5.0 implants, which have the same diameter of implant platform (3.9 mm) and the same degree of platform switching (0.5 mm), the effect of implant diameter cannot be ignored during both vertical and lateral loading. The larger diameter of the RP5.0 implant resulted in lower strain levels than for the RP4.3 implant in peri-implant bone. Previous studies have found the strain to be highest at the marginal bone nearby the implant, which reduces when the implant diameter is increased [16; 32]. This might indicate that the diameter of the implant greatly influences the strain irrespective of the diameter of implant platform and whether or not platform switching is applied. While the RP3.5 and NP4.3 implants both have different implant and implant platform diameters, the degree of platform switching is the same (0.5 mm). Under lateral loading, the strain was higher for the NP3.5 implant, which may be due to its smaller implant body or smaller diameter of implant platform. This may indicate that similar to the effect of implant diameter, the diameter of the implant \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline
**Implant** & **PTV** \\ \hline RP5.0 & \(-7.4\) a \(\pm\) 0.3 \\ RP4.3 & \(-6.7\) b \(\pm\) 1.2 \\ NP3.5 & \(-7.2\) a \(\pm\) 0.5 \\ \(p^{\ddagger}\) & 0.012 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Data are median \(\pm\) interquartile range (IQR) values. \(\ddagger\) Kruskal-Wallis test. \({}^{*}\) Post-hoc pairwise comparisons were conducted by the conducted by the [PERSON] exact tests with the Bonferroni adjustment; medians with the same letter ab are not significantly different at the 0.0167 (0.05/3) level.  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Periodest values \({}^{*}\) of the RP5.0, RP4.3, and NP3.5 implants. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Analyzed Parameters**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Microstrain**} \\ \hline
**Loading** & **Implant** & **Buccal Side** & **Lingual Side** \\ \hline Vertical loading & RP5.0 & \(-1354.56\) a \(\pm\) 122.09 & \(-1287.33\) a \(\pm\) 154.08 \\  & RP4.3 & \(-1782.62\) b \(\pm\) 248.95 & \(-1836.10\) b \(\pm\) 216.51 \\  & NP3.5 & \(-1523.94\) b \(\pm\) 413.68 & \(-1521.28\) b \(\pm\) 669.69 \\ \(p^{\ddagger}\) & & \(<\)0.001 & \(<\)0.001 \\ \hline Lateral loading & RP5.0 & \(-685.95\) a \(\pm\) 96.46 & \(-1542.82\) a \(\pm\) 337.75 \\  & RP4.3 & \(-1042.60\) b \(\pm\) 192.26 & \(-2073.27\) b \(\pm\) 293.83 \\  & NP3.5 & \(-845.66\) b \(\pm\) 543.16 & \(-2915.04\) c \(\pm\) 477.93 \\ \(p^{\ddagger}\) & & \(<\)0.001 & \(<\)0.001 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Data are median \(\pm\) IQR values. \(\ddagger\) Kruskal-Wallis test. \({}^{*}\) Post-hoc pairwise comparisons were conducted by the Mann-Whitney exact tests with the Bonferroni adjustment; medians with the same letter ab are not significantly different at the 0.0167 (0.05/3) level.  
\end{table} 
Table 2: The minimum principal strains \({}^{*}\) of bone on the buccal and lingual sides for the RP5.0, RP4.3, and NP3.5 implants. platform also greatly influences the stress applied on the coronal cortical bone in our experiment, and may also be highly involved in reducing the strain. A particularly interesting finding was that during vertical loading, the strain on the bone was higher around the RP4.3 implant than around the NP3.5 implant despite the former having larger implant and platform diameters.