Gradient Dental Medium Minimizes Stress Between Ceramic and Dentin
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Solution Overview
Problem
Dental structures with different components, such as ceramic and dentin, experience stress concentration and crack propagation due to mismatched physical properties, leading to potential damage or destruction when combined.
Innovation Solution
A medium with multiple layers of polymeric composite materials and inorganic fillers is used to act as a stress-releasing layer, minimizing stress concentration and inhibiting crack growth by varying physical properties across its thickness, such as Young's modulus and hardness, to connect ceramic and dentin components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If ceramic dental components are directly attached to dentin or enamel layers, then the dental structure provides sufficient hardness and strength, but stress concentration and crack propagation occur due to mismatched physical properties
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediate medium layer between the ceramic dental component and the natural tooth structure (dentin or enamel). This medium layer has physical properties that gradually transition from the hard ceramic to the softer natural tooth, acting as a stress buffer that prevents stress concentration and crack propagation while maintaining the hardness and strength of the ceramic component.
Solution Approach 2:
The medium layer's physical properties (such as Young's modulus, hardness, and elastic modulus) are specifically designed to create a gradient transition between the ceramic component and natural tooth structure. By changing these physical parameters across the thickness of the medium layer, the patent achieves stress distribution optimization without compromising the ceramic's inherent strength.
2Ease of manufacture
If a uniform medium layer is used to connect dental components, then the structure is simple to manufacture, but it cannot effectively minimize stress concentration due to lack of physical property variation
Solution Approach 1:
The medium layer is designed with spatially varying physical properties, where different regions of the layer have different hardness, elastic modulus, or compositional characteristics. This local quality variation allows the medium to provide optimal stress distribution at each interface (ceramic-medium and medium-tooth) while maintaining a relatively simple overall structure that can be manufactured using conventional dental materials and techniques.
Data Source
AI summary
A medium for a dental structure includes a first portion having a first physical property arranged to connect with a first dental component of the dental structure; and a second portion having a second physical property arranged to connect with a second dental component of the dental structure, wherein the combination of the first portion and the second portion is arranged to minimize stress established between the first dental component and/or the second dental component when the first dental component combines with the second dental component.