Experimental model for dynamic friction analysis in dental contacts

Friction is involved in dental contact stability, in wear and deterioration of both restoration materials and teeth. In clinical terms, it may influence the occlusal trauma phenomena, leading to a nonaxial tooth loading and damaging the periodontal support. Therefore, one must determine the coefficient of friction in dynamic conditions based on the controlled applied chewing force. In this paper we propose an experimental setup, that contains: actuator with an extracted tooth on a glass plate contact, loading device, displacement transducer, frequency function generator, memory oscilloscope, computer, data acquisition board, image and film programs. Physically, the normal and tangential forces and the number of loading cycles are recorded in dynamic regime. The experimental results of the contact between tooth and glass plate, were obtained for two frequencies: 1 Hz and 2 Hz. The friction coefficient obtained for the two situations had values of 0.186 and 0.226, near that indicated in literature. The research of dental contacts and stresses which appear in the whole masticatory system, can lead to a better understanding of various dental diseases, but also to an increase in preventing and treating them.