Reevaluation on the mechanical properties of dentine microstructure

Objective: It is demostrated that the porous protein-mineral mechanics model could provide more accurate prediction for biomaterial properties of dentine compared with the other established models. This paper would use the model to reevaluate the mechanical properties and its interacting mechanism of human dentine. Method: By using a porous protein-mineral mechanics model, the effect from the interactions between tubules, peritubular and intertubular matrix on dentine microstructure was discussed. Results: The dentinal micromechanical properties were dependent on the tubular direction, and the absolute values of the stresses derived from the hydraulic and gas tubular pressures increased parabolically with the increasing diameter of the tubules. It was also found that the effective elastic constants of the dentine microstructure would vary with the aging and the distribution of mineral and collagen within peritubular and intertubular matrix of detine. Conclusions: The theoretical analyses provided in this paper demonstrated that the microstructural characteristics of tubules, peritubular and intertubular dentinal matrix could have different influences on the micromechanical properties of human dentine, which showed the validity of porous protein-mineral mechanics model, and the limitation of some models that neglected the interacting mechanism.