Assessment of the Highest Stress Concentration Area Generated on the Mandibular Structure Using Meshless Finite Elements Analysis

Abstract

Frequently, the oral cavity area can be affected by different diseases, so the patient needs to be submitted to surgery to remove a specific region of the mandibular. A complete or partial discontinuity of the mandibular bone can cause direct or indirect forces variations during the mastication. The dental prosthesis is an alternative to generate an aesthetic or functional solution for oral cavity lesions. However, they can be wrongly designed, or they can lose the adjustment during their useful life, deteriorating the patient’s condition. In this work, the influence of the fixation components position for a dental prosthesis will be studied based on the finite element method. By means, it is possible to determine the area of the highest stress concentration generated on the mandibular structure. The temporomandibular image obtained by computational tomography was used as a 3D graphic whole model because in the medical area the morphological factors are extremely important. Vertical loads of 50, 100, 150 and 200 N were applied in three different regions: in the whole buccal cavity, simultaneously in the left and right laterals and only in the right lateral, to determine the values of von Mises stress in the mandible. These results were compared between three finite element software packages (Ansys®, SolidWorks® and Inventor®) and a meshless software (SimSolid®). They showed similar behaviors in the highest mechanical stress concentration in the same regions. Regarding the stress values, the percentage error between each software package was less than 10%. The use of SimSolid® software (meshless) proved to be better at identifying the higher stress generated by the dental prosthesis in the facial skeleton, so its computational efficiency, due to its geometric complexity, was highlighted.