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Application of Grinding Fundamentals to Material-Specific Relationships in the Dental Grinding Process

Adam Carreon

Monday, January 16, 2017
9:00 a.m.
Hopeman 224

In restorative dentistry, the use of machinable ceramics for patient tooth restoration has become common practice. In fact, more than 15 million dental procedures are performed each year that require the grinding of tooth enamel and dentin. This results in the need for machinable ceramics to properly restore the structure of patient's tooth. As with any invasive procedure, there exist health risks that could negatively impact the patient, for example, pulpal death and oral health. Additionally, there exist aesthetic risks such as chipping and the cracking of teeth. Damage such as these arise due to the interaction between abrasive grinding tool and workpiece material (human teeth, restorative material, etc.) during the dental grinding process not being fully understood. In order to alleviate the dental grinding process of these damage risks, further knowledge on the grinding process kinematics and the effect of material properties on the dental grinding process are needed. To achieve this, this research aims to establish grinding-force process-parameter relationships, material-specific grinding-force models, and, finally, apply them to the dental grinding process in order to personalize the dental grinding procedure for patient health and comfort.