Modeling Interactions of Pulpal Tissue with Deformable Tools in Endodontic Simulation

Effective and efficient simulation of tissue-tool interactions is the key to a virtual endodontic training system. This paper presents a new force model for effectively simulating the interactions of the pulpal tissue with the endodontic tools. Based on the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method, a particle-based pulpal tissue model is proposed, which takes into account characteristics of the tissue and constraints associated with both the tissue and current haptic devices. The stability, accuracy and speed of the proposed model are guaranteed by applying suitable smoothing kernels to calculate different forces applied to the pulpal tissue. Furthermore, a finite element model is used to model the deformation and dynamics of the endodontic tools. We also derive several boundary constraints associated with interactions of the pulpal tissue with the endodontic tools. With this force model, the virtual system can provide the convincing sense of touch of endodontic procedures in real time using current high fidelity haptic devices.