Biomechanics Studies in Dentistry

Dear Colleagues,

In modern-day dentistry, the success of restorative dental treatments is affected by several clinical and laboratorial parameters.

In former times, the assessment of biomaterials’ restorative mechanical properties was used to predict procedures’ clinical success based on a purely quantitative ranking, without considering the complexity of the oral environment and individual characteristics. Constant properties, such as compressive strength, tensile strength, hardness and toughness, were widely investigated. Nowadays, these mechanical properties are often required to characterize a new material and to understand how it should be implemented in traditional, established materials. Yet, antagonists, the fatigue effect, pH variation and other variables should also be evaluated in order to mimic an unfriendly oral environment.

Precise treatment by dentists can promote durable rehabilitation that will endure chewing loads in the long term. However, errors in dental materials processing, the wrong design of the prosthetic structure, an increased number of defects, high residual stress concentration, wrong geometry, excessive polymerization shrinkage and many others factors can affect the mechanical behavior of dentistry biomaterials.

Several studies have studied the influence of different factors on the biological response with bioengineering tools. Methods including finite element analysis, strain gauge, photoelasticity and digital image correlation are widely used to explore possible solutions in dentistry. Every year, new methods arise and a deeper knowledge of oral biomechanics is achieved.

There is still a lack of data on the clinical and laboratorial parameters that can be controlled to increase treatment performance and the biomechanical response of dental treatments using contemporary dental biomaterials. In addition, digital dentistry has opened up new possibilities, such as chairside workflows; however, these still need to be scientifically established. All of these factors are of great interest for both technicians and clinicians, considering that such findings can be applied to empirically establish adequate dental treatments.

With that in mind, this Special Issue invites you to disseminate your findings on the following themes:

• Assessment of indirect restorations;
• Stress generated during chewing loading;
• Reliability and clinical performance of direct and indirect prosthetic materials;
• Long-term simulations showing the failure origin and fracture features of failed dental treatments;
• Evaluation of mechanical response using biomechanical tools in the maxillofacial complex;
• Procedures to improve the restorations’ longevity and improve patient life quality.

Dr. Joao Paulo Tribst
Dr. Guilherme Schmitt De Andrade
Dr. Alexandre Luiz Souto Borges
Guest Editors

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