Numerical analysis of human dental occlusal contact

The purpose of this study was to obtain real contact areas, forces, and pressures acting on human dental enamel as a function of the nominal pressure during dental occlusal contact. The described development consisted of three steps: characterization of the surface roughness by 3D contact profilometry test, finite element analysis of micro responses for each pair of main asperities in contact, and homogenization of macro responses using an assumed probability density function. The inelastic deformation of enamel was considered, adjusting the stress-strain relationship of sound enamel to that obtained from instrumented indentation tests conducted with spherical tip. A mechanical part of the static friction coefficient was estimated as the ratio between tangential and normal components of the overall resistive force, resulting in mu(d) = 0.057. Less than 1% of contact pairs reached the yield stress of enamel, indicating that the occlusal contact is essentially elastic. The micro-models indicated an average hardness of 6.25GPa, and the homogenized result for macroscopic interface was around 9GPa. Further refinements of the methodology and verification using experimental data can provide a better understanding of processes related to contact, friction and wear of human tooth enamel.