Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of Dental Research
This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Lee, J.J.-.W.
Right arrow Articles by Lawn, B.R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Lee, J.J.-.W.
Right arrow Articles by Lawn, B.R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Biomaterials & Bioengineering

Fracture Modes in Human Teeth

J.J.-.W. Lee1,*, J.-Y. Kwon2, H. Chai3, P.W. Lucas4, V.P. Thompson5 and B.R. Lawn1

1 Ceramics Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8520, USA;
2 School of Nano and Advanced Materials Engineering, Changwon National University, Changwon, Kyung-Nam, Korea;
3 School of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel;
4 Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA; and
5 New York University College of Dentistry, New York, NY 10010, USA

Correspondence: james.lee{at}nist.gov

The structural integrity of teeth under stress is vital to functional longevity. We tested the hypothesis that this integrity is limited by fracture of the enamel. Experiments were conducted on molar teeth, with a metal rod loaded onto individual cusps. Fracture during testing was tracked with a video camera. Two longitudinal modes of cracking were observed: median cracking from the contact zone, and margin cracking along side walls. Median cracks initiated from plastic damage at the contact site, at first growing slowly and then accelerating to the tooth margin. Margin cracks appeared to originate from the cemento-enamel junction, and traversed the tooth wall adjacent to the loaded cusp from the gingival to the occlusal surface. All cracks remained confined within the enamel shell up to about 550 N. At higher loads, additional crack modes—such as enamel chipping and delamination—began to manifest themselves, leading to more comprehensive failure of the tooth structure.

Key Words: dental enamel • fracture modes • median cracks • margin cracks • occlusal loading

Journal of Dental Research, Vol. 88, No. 3, 224-228 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0022034508330055
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USAHome page
H. Chai, J. J.-W. Lee, P. J. Constantino, P. W. Lucas, and B. R. Lawn
Remarkable resilience of teeth
PNAS, May 5, 2009; 106(18): 7289 - 7293.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]