USING FATIGUE ANALYSES FROM FEA TO STUDY THE BIOMECHANICS OF RESTORED TEETH WITH INTRARADICULAR POSTS

摘要

Dental restorations using intraradicular posts are commonly used nowadays, but still present a high failure rate after several years of service. There is a high interest on looking for a post design that minimizes the failure probability of the restoration under the masticatory loads that the tooth has to bear. These forces have a dynamic nature that should be taken into account. Both dentists and mechanical engineers have been trying to investigate the effect of the different parameters defining the post design (material, shape and dimensions), but not a definitive work exists presenting a systematic study of their influence. This goal is not feasible by using only in-vitro tests, and needs for the use of biomechanical models. In this work, the use of a biomechanical model including a fatigue analysis from FEA is presented as an easy and powerful method to study the effect of the different parameters defining the intraradicular post design. The inclusion of the fatigue analysis allows for a more realistic study that accounts for the dynamic nature of masticatory loads, and, at the same time, the results obtained are easier to interpret by others than mechanical engineers.