The effect of pulp volume and impact direction on the stress and strain distribution during an impact.

BACKGROUND/AIM:Dentoalveolar trauma has a high incidence in different age groups, including the extremes, children, and older people. Mouth aging leads to some changes, one of them being the pulp volume reduction. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of different pulp cavity volumes and the impact direction on the stress and strain distribution of a maxillary central incisor. MATERIAL AND METHODS:Twenty cone beam computed tomography sets of images were selected and the pulp cavity volume was measured by ITK-SNAP software. The mean pulp cavity volume for age group of 10- to 12-year-olds was calculated to obtain the largest one. Subsequent reductions (25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) in the pulp volume values were made to simulate the aging process. The maxilla anterior segment was modeled in the Rhinoceros 5.0 software. The three-dimensional volumetric mesh was generated using the Patran software (MSC. Software), with isoparametrics, 4-noded tetrahedral elements, and exported to Marc/Mentat (MSC. Software) as element number 134. A non-linear dynamic impact analysis was performed in which a steel ball reached the central incisor at a speed of 5 m/s in the horizontal or vertical direction. The stresses were evaluated by modified von Mises stresses. The strains and the total displacement were also recorded. RESULTS:The pulp volume mean value for the age group of 10- to 12-year-olds was 65.05 mm3 . Stress concentrations were slightly different for the different pulp volumes. Impact directions resulted in different stress distribution. Higher stress values were present with the horizontal impact (range between 25.18 MPa and 24.08 MPa for enamel and 38.89 MPa and 37.03 for dentin) when compared to vertical impact (range between 15.30 MPa and 14.58 for enamel and 24.77 to 22.03 MPa for dentin). Total displacement was different for the two impact directions and higher for the horizontal impact. CONCLUSION:Pulp volume did not significantly affect the stress, strain, and total displacement during the impact but the impact direction did affect the evaluated parameters during impact.