The dental hard tissues of a tooth are combined of enamel and dentin together. The enamel protects the dentin and comes in direct contact with food during mastication. Bite force is expressed as compression force. The purpose of this study is to identify the primary roles of enamel and dentin during mastication by analyzing their mechanical properties and hardness.
Healthy human teeth (age: 19.3 ± 4.1) were used as specimens for mechanical tests. The teeth, which underwent epoxy resin molding, were machine cut to make 10 enamel specimens, 10 dentin specimens and 10 enamel–dentin composite (ED) specimens of 1.2 mm × 1.2 mm × 3.0 mm (Width × Height × Length) in size. Compression tests were conducted using a micro-load system at 0.1 mm/min test speed.
Teeth surface hardness (HV) was measured by a Vickers diamond indenter with a 300g indentation load. Data were obtained from 4 points on each enamel specimen and 4 points on each dentin specimen.
The strain (%), stress (MPa) and modulus of elasticity (E, MPa) of the specimens were obtained from compression tests. The MAX. strain of the enamel, dentin and ED specimens were 4.5 ± 0.8 %, 11.9 ± 0.1 % and 8.7 ± 2.7 %, respectively. The MAX. stress of the enamel, dentin and ED specimens were 62.2 ± 23.8 MPa, 193.7 ± 30.6 MPa and 126.1 ± 54.6 MPa, respectively. The E values of the enamel, dentin and ED specimens were 1338.2 ± 307.9 MPa, 1653.7 ± 277.9 MPa and 1628.6 ± 482.7 MPa, respectively. The E of the dentin specimens was the highest and the E of the enamel specimens was the lowest, but the E values of all specimens was not significantly different in the T-test (P > 0.1). The measured hardness value of the enamel specimens (HV = 274.8 ± 18.1) was about 4.2 times higher than that of the dentin specimens (HV = 65.6 ± 3.9).
Because of the values of MAX. stress and MAX. strain of the enamel specimens, the enamel specimens tended to fracture earlier than the dentin and ED specimens; therefore, enamel was considered to be more brittle than dentin and ED. Enamel is a harder tissue than dentin based on their measured hardness values. Therefore, enamel has a higher wear resistance, making it suitable for grinding and crushing, whereas dentin has a higher force function, making it suitable for abutment against bite force.
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