An investigation of dentinal fluid flow in dental pulp during food mastication: simulation of fluid–structure interaction

Abstract

This study uses fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulation to investigate the relationship between the dentinal fluid flow in the dental pulp of a tooth and the elastic modulus of masticated food particles and to investigate the effects of chewing rate on fluid flow in the dental pulp. Three-dimensional simulation models of a premolar tooth (enamel, dentine, pulp, periodontal ligament, cortical bone, and cancellous bone) and food particle were created. Food particles with elastic modulus of 2,000 and 10,000 MPa were used, respectively. The external displacement loading (5 μm) was gradually directed to the food particle surface for 1 and 0.1 s, respectively, to simulate the chewing of food particles. The displacement and stress on tooth structure and fluid flow in the dental pulp were selected as evaluation indices. The results show that masticating food with a high elastic modulus results in high stress and deformation in the tooth structure, causing faster dentinal fluid flow in the pulp in comparison with that obtained with soft food. In addition, fast chewing of hard food particles can induce faster fluid flow in the pulp, which may result in dental pain. FSI analysis is shown to be a useful tool for investigating dental biomechanics during food mastication. FSI simulation can be used to predict intrapulpal fluid flow in dental pulp; this information may provide the clinician with important concept in dental biomechanics during food mastication.

Designing and testing regenerative pulp treatment strategies: modeling the transdentinal transport mechanisms

“…Therefore, Computational Fluid Dynamics ( CFD ) seems to be the only feasible method for studying the problem under consideration. Recent studies confirmed that CFD is a powerful analytical tool in dental pulp research (Boutsioukis et al, 2009 ; Gao et al, 2009 ; Su et al, 2014 ). However, an up to date literature review has revealed that there is no significant progress interpretation of flow phenomena inside the dentinal tubules.…”

Computational Modelling for Efficient Transdentinal Drug Delivery

“…Consequently, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) appear to be the most feasible method for studying the problem under consideration. Several studies confirmed the suitability of CFD for dental pulp study e.g., [13][14][15][16]. In a previous study [17], we have numerically investigated the delivery of bioactive therapeutic agents to the dentin-enamel junction (DEJ) through a typical dentin tubule that has no obstructions or alterations of any type.…”

Computational Modelling for Efficient Transdentinal Drug Delivery

“…Several studies confirmed that CFD is a powerful analytical tool in dental pulp research [e.g. [12][13][14]. The simple case that concerns delivery of bioactive therapeutic agents to the dentin-enamel junction (DEJ) through a typical dentin tubule that has no obstructions or alterations of any type has been numerically studied in our Laboratory [15].…”