Influence of different access cavity sizes on the direction of stress distribution in endodontically treated uniradicular maxillary premolar

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the influence of different access cavity sizes on the stress distribution in an endodontically treated maxillary premolar model compared to an intact one using finite element analysis (FEA). Materials and Methods: The distributions of maximum and minimum principal stress were calculated. In the intact tooth, the maximum principal stress was located in the enamel-dentine junction and the minimum principal stress was in the cervical area. Results: In large-sized access, the maximum principal stress (tensile) increased by 41% compared to the contracted access model. This tensile strength was concentrated on interface tooth/restoration. Medium-sized access caused an increase of 27% of the minimum principal stress(compressive strength) on the apical region compared to the contracted access cavity. There was also an increase of 15% of the maximum principal stress (tensile strength) when comparing medium and minimum-sized cavities. Conclusion: The endodontic access cavity design modified the value and the direction of principal stress distribution of endodontically treated uniradicular maxillary premolar compared to the natural one.