First Steps Towards Understanding the Periodontal Ligament Mechanobiology in Orthodontic Tooth Displacement: Gathering of Experimental Data for Numerical Modelling

In orthodontics, mechanical forces are applied onto brackets bonded on dental crowns to correct dental malocclusions, inducing biological reactions within the periodontium. These phenomena lead to orthodontic tooth movement through bone remodeling. The aim of our work is to develop a numerical model with experimental and histological data, trying to simulate at best the initial conditions of the in-vivo conditions. For this, we initially generated an experimental set-up to quantify friction and applied forces into three brackets of interest. We then defined by histology the cellular and vascular density within the periodontal ligament and surrounding bone on human samples. With the help of these informations, a preliminary mechanobiological coupling is put forward, to be integrated within a finite element numerical model in order to predict tooth displacement.