Viscoelastic Characterization of the Periodontal Ligament under Common Orthodontic Loading

This paper presents a numerical investigation on the PDLstructure of the human tooth to predict its response andbehavior under an external force where, there is lack ofstudies. Currently, orthodontic treatments are uncertain andmaybe inefficient because of this data insufficiency. In thecurrent study, time dependent analysis of stresses andstrains in the tooth model were performed by COMSOLMultiphysics while PLD was studied as a viscoelasticmaterial. In the next step, the stress-strain data were adaptedby a system of springs and dashpots that can properlycharacterize the viscoelastic behavior. The model wasevaluated by the match percentage to the numerical data.Variations of the model in the PDL tissue were also studiedand an interpolating function was introduced for capturingthe variations.