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Procedia Engineering 31 (2012) 828 – 833

International Conference on Advances in Computational Modeling and Simulation

Mechanical Responses of Periodontal Ligament under A

Realistic Orthodontic Loading
Huixiang Huanga*, Wencheng Tanga, Bin Yanb , Bin Wuc
a
School of Mechanical Engineering, Southeast University, 211189, Nanjing, China
b
School of Stomatology,Nanjing Medical University,210029,Nanjing,China
c
School of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering,Nanjing Forestry University,210037,Nanjing,China

Abstract

The aim of this research was to investigate the initial mechanical responses in periodontal ligament (PDL) under a
realistic orthodontic loading for two parallel forces. The finite element (FE) model including maxillary, central
incisor and PDL was created based on the computed tomography and reverse engineering. The material behavior of
the PDL was considered to be hyperelastic. In order to evaluate the stresses derived from two parallel forces, the
comparison with the stresses under simplified concentrated force was made. The results showed that the stress
distributions of the PDL calculated by ABAQUS with the two types of loads were similar, but the stress level in the
PDL for two parallel forces was a bit higher than that for concentrated force. So the two parallel forces could reflect
more accurately the root resorption in actual clinical treatment. The stresses and the strains were concentrated in the
areas near the alveolar crest and the root apex in the lingual-buccal PDL.

© 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Kunming
University of Science and Technology Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.

Keywords: Orthodontic force; Periodontal ligament; Finite element; Hyperelasticity; Stress and strain

1. Introduction

Orthodontic forces acting on tooth directly and its supporting apparatus (alveolar bone, periodontal ligament, and root
cementum ) indirectly, generate a compound set of mechanical stimuli triggering biologic reactions in associated
PDL and alveolar bone, thus inducing teeth to move to more appropriate positions in the jaw[1]. The remodeling
occurred in the alveolar bone is the underlying reason for tooth movement, and it is believed that stresses and strains

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-15952081723

E-mail address: huanghx09@sina.com.

1877-7058 © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2012.01.1108
 Huixiang Huang et al. / Procedia Engineering 31 (2012) 828 – 833 829

induced in the PDL by orthodontic forces are the proper mechanical signals initiating orthodontic bone remodeling
processes[2,3]. So it is essential for clinicians to understand the forces applied to the tooth and the mechanical
responses in the PDL, in order to improve the clinical efficiency and outcomes of the treatment, and understand the
biomechanical mechanism of orthodontic tooth movement.
Orthodontic force systems result from the deformation of the continuous archwire for fixed orthodontic
appliance used in orthodontic treatment and orthodontic tooth movement is the result of biologic reaction
to applied orthodontic forces. Despite the optimal force for orthodontic tooth movement is an open
question, ideally, an optimal orthodontic force should stimulate rapid tooth movement with minimal
biologic trauma of the tooth, PDL, and alveolar bone, and histologically, it is desirable for an optimal
force to maintain a stress level in the PDL that initiates a maximal cellular response for bone apposition
and resorption, while maintaining the vitality of the local tissues[4]. It was proved that excessive stresses
under orthodontic loading can lead to root resorption, and root resorption is a serious iatrogenic problem
during orthodontic treatment. So it is necessary to quantitatively determine mechanical responses to
orthodontic loads in a realistic orthodontic treatment.
Since the FE method was introduced into dental biomechanical research in 1973 [5,6], it has been
extensively applied to analyze the stress and strain fields in the tooth support structures[7]. In previous
investigations, the forces from archwire acting on bracket were simplified as a concentrated force
translated to tooth, but due to the prefabricate radian of archwire, mostly, the contacts between archwire
and bracket only arise at the two endpoints of the bracket slot. In other words, the actual orthodontic
loading should be considered as a pair of parallel forces rather than a concentrated force.
The purpose of this investigation was to study the mechanical responses of PDL under two parallel
forces by FE method. The tooth component model incorporating orthodontic appliance including archwire
and bracket was established (Fig.1b), then we compared and discussed the stresses of the PDL under two
parallel forces and a concentrated force in the light of previous investigations of biologic reactions during
orthodontic tooth movement.

2. Material

To acquire geometry of the real tooth, CT image-reconstruction technique was used in this investigation,
and 3D model of the maxillary central incisor was constructed by the Mimics10.0 software. The data of
case was obtained from the orthodontics Division of Jiangsu Province Hospital. The equipment for data
sampling is Sensation 16 screw CT machine made in Germany.

3. Methods

3.1. CAD Model

The tissues were segmented on the basis of their densities by selecting the value of threshold for the CT
image, then the region growth was used to reconstruct the surface of the partial maxillary segment and its
central incisor respectively. Finally their point clouds were achieved, and filtering the redundant noise
points was conducted to obtain the precise characteristics of the partial maxillary and central incisor.
The point clouds after being filtered were imported into the CATIA software, and the triangular grids
were generated from the point cloud. And then the smooth processing of the triangular grids had been
carried out to preclude the effect of the singularities, which made the grid surfaces approach to the actual
geometry of the tooth. In order to acquire the free-form surfaces, the triangular surfaces were split into
finite smaller regions, and the free-form surfaces of the partial maxillary and central incisor were closed
to yield their solid models. Therefore, the CAD models of central incisor, PDL and maxillary shown in
Fig.1a, were received through executing Boolean operation among central incisor solid model, tooth solid
model thickened outwards as 0.2mm and partial maxillary solid model.
830 Huixiang Huang et al. / Procedia Engineering 31 (2012) 828 – 833

(a) (b)
Fig.1. (a) The CAD models of central incisor, PDL and Fig.2 Loading and boundary
maxillary, (b) The CAD model of tooth components conditions of FE model (F=0.25N)
incorporating orthodontic appliance

3.2. CAE Models and Finite Element Analysis

To acquire better mesh quality, the CAD models of central incisor, PDL and maxillary were imported into
HyperMesh software to generate CAE models. Then the CAE models were input into the ABAQUS
software to do finite elemenW DQDO\VLV 7KH <RXQJ¶V PRGXOXV RI WKH WRRWK DQG DOYHRODU ERQH LV
approximately 20000-30000 times that of the PDL, and their deformations are negligible in comparison
with that of PDL [8], in order to save the time of calculation, thereby, the central incisor and alveolar
bone were postulated for rigid body (The relative error was found to be less than 1%). The element types
of the central incisor and the alveolar bone were both used for R3D4, and their models consisted of 10562
and 19806 elements respectively.
If the orthodontic forces are maintained for a long time, the stresses and the strains in the PDL will
trigger alveolar bone remodeling processes resulting in a permanent change in tooth position[9], and this
study was focused on the mechanical responses of the PDL under short-term forces ,associated with
initial tooth displacement caused. However, the degree of initial tooth displacement is related to the
material properties of the tooth, the alveolar bone and especially PDL. Although the linear elastic model
is widely used for the PDL, it is commonly accepted that the PDL component is nonlinear. Moreover, the
present investigations have proved that the transient characteristics of the PDL are more suitable for
nonlinear constitutive models to describe. The nonlinearity of the PDL, published in former literatures,
can be described using the hyperelasticity, the bilinear behavior or the time-dependent viscoelasticity, in
DGGLWLRQVHYHUDOFRQVWLWXWLYHPRGHOVKDYHEHHQSURSRVHGWRFKDUDFWHUL]HWKH3'/¶s hyperelasticity[10,11].
So the hyperelastic property of PDL was taken into consideration in this investigation, and the strain
energy potential function for Ogden model can be expressed as
N
2 Pi ai ai ai
N
1
W ¦ 2
( O1  O2  O3  3)  ¦ ( J  1) 2i (1)
i 1 ai i 1 Di

Where W is strain energy function, O1 , O2 and O3 are the principle stretches ,and J is the elastic volume
ratio. P i is related to the initial shear modulus of the material, a i and Di are the parameters of material.
 Huixiang Huang et al. / Procedia Engineering 31 (2012) 828 – 833 831

Oi J 1 3Oi ˈO1O2 O3 1 (2)

The data of an unaxial tension test for the PDL in the literature [12] was used for fitting of the third
order Ogden model, so the curve fitting and the coefficients were shown in Fig.3 and Table 1. The
3RLVVRQ¶VUDWLRIRUWKH3'/ZDVDVVXPHGWREH The element type for the PDL with a total thickness
of 0.2mm was C3D8RH, and the PDL model contained 51589 elements.

Fig.3 Fitting of Ogden model and test data

Table 1 Coefficients of the third order Ogden model

i Pi ai Di
1 -24.4237106 1.99994222 4.87164332
2 15.8966494 3.99994113 0.00000000
3 8.56953079 -2.00005453 0.00000000

The whole FE model was supported by applying the rigid boundary conditions in all degrees of
freedom to all nodes of the alveolar bone as shown in Fig.2. The contact constraint between the central
LQFLVRUDQGWKH3'/ZDVVHWXSZLWK³WLH´DVZHOODVWKDWEHWZHHQWKHDOYHRODUERQHDQGWKH3'/,QRUGHU
to evaluate the mechanical responses of the PDL under two parallel forces which is in accordance with
realistic loads in orthodontic clinical treatment, the two parallel forces and a concentrated force with the
value of 0.5N were applied respectively to the central incisor, and the directions of them were
perpendicular to the bracket, as shown in Fig.2. Moreover, the distance of two parallel forces was 3mm
for the width of the bracket.

4. Results

With these material parameters and boundary conditions, the calculations for nonlinear FE model was
performed, then the stresses and their distributions were generated in the PDL, as shown in Fig.4 and
Fig.5. The stress distributions of the PDL for the two types of loading conditions were similar, and there
were stress concentration areas near the alveolar ridge at the lingual PDL and near the apex at the buccal
PDL, whereas the maximal stress appeared at the alveolar ridge of the lingual PDL as shown in Fig.6.
The stress levels within the PDL for the two parallel forces were higher than those for the simplified
concentrated force, when the total value of each was 0.5N. With the increasing of the value, the
832 Huixiang Huang et al. / Procedia Engineering 31 (2012) 828 – 833

differences of the stress levels for them were more pronounced, and vice versa. Therefore, it was easier
for the two parallel forces to control and reduce the root resorption.
The PDL under two parallel forces with 0.5N undergone both tensile and compressive principal
stresses, as shown in Fig.7. The tensile principal stresses were located in the buccal-cervical area and
lingual apical area of the PDL, whereas the compressive principal stresses occurred in the opposite areas.
The areas of high strain were present at the alveolar crest and root apex in the PDL, as shown in Fig.8.
Thus this is in agreement with the result of the present study [13].

Fig.4 Stress in the PDL for two parallel forces Fig.5 Stress in the PDL for concentrated force

Fig.6 The stresses for the lingual-buccal section of the PDL along the PDL from the apex during the
application of the two parallel forces with 0.5N

Fig.7 Principal stresses in the PDL Fig.8 Principal strains in the PDL
 Huixiang Huang et al. / Procedia Engineering 31 (2012) 828 – 833 833

5. Conclusion

The 3D FE model was established to simulate the mechanical responses of the PDL under the two parallel
forces. The new modeling method is more accurate than the traditional method, especially the CAE model,
and the loads applied with two parallel force is more realistic than the simplified concentrated force in
orthodontic treatment. The result demonstrated that it is more desirable to reduce the occurrence of root
resorption by using realistic orthodontic loads. Despite of the difference of the stress levels caused by two
type of loading conditions, the distribution of the stresses in the PDL is similar, and the concentrations of
stress and strain occur in the alveolar ridge and apex of the lingual-buccal PDL.
The accurate mechanical responses of periodontal ligament can be obtained through actual load
condition, and they may be used to propose better treatment plans for patients, then the period of
treatment can be shortened .

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