Prediction of Stress Distribution in Mandibular Bone Treated with Distal-Extension Partial Denture Using Finite Element Analysis

This paper describes the feasibility of using finite element analysis to predict stress distributions in mandibular bone treated with a distal-extension partial denture, compared with conventional photoelastic method. A finite element model was constructed based on the CT scan data of the three-dimensional photoelastic model, which was anatomically realistic replica of a patient mandibular bone with teeth. A vertical loading was applied to a specially designed metal pyramid mounted on the first molar region to mimic functional movements of the partial denture. The numerical results showed that higher stress was observed in the apical and distal sides of the abutment teeth, which was the similar tendency to the experimental results obtained by the photoelastic method. Moreover, stress distributions depended on the variety of loadings applied to the different point of the pyramid. The present analysis may give a better prediction of stress distributions in patient mandibular bone than the photoelastic method.