2012 Volume 12 Issue Special_Issue Pages s267-s272
The movement of the molars of a lower jaw subjected to distal loads from an implant anchor, a correcting wire and brackets was investigated using a three-dimensional finite element method. The finite element model consists of the lower jaw, teeth, periodontal membranes, the correcting wire and brackets. The lower jaw and teeth were constructed on the basis of computed tomography (CT) images of a dried human skull. The Young's modulus of the lower jaw was obtained from the gray value data of the CT images. The implant anchor was not considered in the model. However, the position of the anchor was used to determine the direction of the force acting on the wire. The movement of the molars was compared with that of a lower jaw model obtained experimentally using a three-dimensional digital image correlation technique. Result sindicated that the movement of the molars depended on the position and direction of the load.
