Dental occlusion analysis of periodontium using a digital image correlation method

Study on displacement and deformation behaviors of periodontium under dental occlusion, in general, was concluded only from two information, which are a single-point displacement value from a strain gauge, applied force from a load cell, etc. Direct visualization of these behaviors has been actively conducted by various research groups in the world. However, these studies have relied on dried periodontia or photoelastic materials such as resin to simulate living tissue. Thus, their results may differ significantly from the displacement and deformation behaviors that occur under the dental occlusion of fresh periodontium. In this study, the visualization of displacement and deformation behaviors of fresh periodontium was attempted by using the skull of a pig killed in several days earlier for rendering to obtain fresh periodontia as close as possible to live tissues. The dental occlusion was simulated by applying a forced displacement using a material tester. In addition to the dental occlusion process, we observed the displacement behavior of the fresh and dried periodontium in the process of restoration. To clarify difference in these behaviors between both periodontia, similar experiments were also conducted to compare their displacement distributions. A digital image correlation method was applied to the analysis.