Validity assessment of a single tooth model in clenching and chewing simulations

Single tooth finite element model is widely used to investigate tooth behaviors with reducing modeling process and computational time. This study aims to examine the validity of a single tooth model in clenching and chewing actions. The single tooth model consisting of tooth #16, the periodontal ligament (PDL), and bone was subjected to coronal-apical movements. The predicted strains from the analyses were validated with the in-vitro experimental results on tooth-PDL-bone specimen. The stress distributions of tooth root and PDL were compared to those from the full skull model to evaluate reasonability of the single tooth model. The results of this study indicate that the single tooth model is able to predict valid structural and mechanical behaviors in clenching and chewing activities.