Stress-strain analysis of an abutment tooth with rest seat prepared in a composite restoration

Abstract

Placing a composite restoration on abutments for the removable of partial dentures gives favorable aesthetic results with minimal intervention. The objective of this paper is to analyze the stress distribution of a tooth with occlusal rest-seat preparation in the composite and compare it to the biomechanical behavior of an intact tooth, assuming that the stress and strain distribution throughout the intact tooth provides the control scenario. For this finite-element study two different models were designed. The first model was the three-dimensional (3D) model of an intact tooth, and the other one was a 3D model of a tooth with a composite restoration and an appropriate occlusal rest-seat preparation. Load stimulations were performed when the rest was fully seated on its corresponding rest seat and abutment tooth in order to obtain data about the biomechanical behavior of the abutment tooth compared to the intact tooth's stress-distribution pattern. The results of our analyses are presented and analyzed qualitatively. The occlusal loading effect along the sound tooth exhibits a wider high-stress area, localized in correspondence with the occlusal enamel, than the restored teeth. This is due to the rigidity of the enamel. The reduction in the stress values occurs in the composite restoration, which is less rigid. Its lower rigidity allows larger cusp movements. The stress-distribution pattern of the restored tooth with the rest seat showed that introducing an occlusal restoration does not differ from the intact tooth globally, but locally. Our findings indicate that the composite rest-seat restoration absorbs the loading, so reducing the stresses inside the tooth's structure.