Virtual analysis of stresses in human teeth restored with esthetic posts

Abstract

The use of intra-radicular posts for rebuilding of damaged teeth is a normal practice in contemporary dentistry. However, dental roots restored with posts are subjected to the risk of failure under occlusal loads, particularly in cases of small dentin thickness. This study adopted the finite element analysis to compare the elastic stress distribution in simulated endodontically treated maxillary central incisor restored with two different esthetic posts, a ceramic post and a prefabricated fiber glass post. Under masticatory load, the shear stress and von Mises equivalent stress were determined for the different regions of the two models. The results demonstrated that stress concentrations occurred mainly in the cervical dentin in the prefabricated fiber glass post model. The ceramic post model presented stress concentration in a region limited to the proper post adjacent to its apical end, thus preserving the root dentin.