Stress behaviour across human tooth by temperature gradient resulting of laser irradiation

Abstract

The authors report the simulation of temperature distribution and thermally induced stress in the premolar tooth under ND-YAG pulsed laser beam. The Three-Phase-Lag (TPL) non-Fourier model is proposed to describe the heat conduction in the human tooth with nonhomogeneous inner structures. A premolar tooth comprising enamel, dentin, and pulp with real shapes and thicknesses are considered and a numerical method of finite difference was adopted to solve the time-dependent TPL bio-heat transfer, strain and stress equations. The surface heating scheme is applied for simulation of laser therapy. The aim of this laser therapy is that the temperature of pulp reaches to 47oC. The results are achieved as a function of laser heat flux showed when laser beam is irradiated downward (from the top of the tooth), the temperature and thermally induced stress increase as a function of time. The temperature increment is high on the top layers of tooth that is a result of strong absorption of beams by enamel. The thermal stress and strain in the enamel and dentin layers are more than the pulp layer that is a result of weak thermal expansion of them proportional to the pulp layer.