In the harsh environment of the oral cavity the tooth is subjected to repeated loads. The tooth's function is to break up food stuff into small enough particles that can be digested. The tooth must be able to distribute the forces it is exposed to in a manner that maintains its structural integrity. The purpose of research is to determine quantitatively and qualitatively the relationship between load and deformation of the tooth, both in vitro and in vivo. In addition, a finite element model that can predict the stress transfer through the tooth crown will be established. This will lead to better understanding of the biomechanical role of teeth, give insight into failure mechanisms of teeth and may result in useful information in the development of restorative procedures. The first phase of this projected is to take a tooth in vivo, bond a rosette strain gage to it, load it in a controlled manner in multiple positions while recording the force and strain output simultaneously. The second phase is to extract the same tooth with the strain gage intact and repeat the loading in vitro. In the third phase, the tooth will be used to created a finite element model and again be loaded in the same manner. The principal maximum and minimum strains and orientation will then be compared with each phase of the project as validation. The goal of this research is to constructed a validated three-dimensional finite element model of a tooth that predicts deformation pattern of a point on the tooth when loaded. Once a model is constructed and validated the stress distribution of a tooth to load can be better understood and be used to address problems associated with biomechanical aspects of the tooth.
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