Development of a Chewing Simulator for Testing Dental Materials: A Pilot Study

This paper presents the primary results of the development of a chewing bench prototype. The final aim of the device is to reproduce the human oral cavity environment in order to predict ageing of dental materials, it automatically imitates chewing cycles and reproduces the physical and chemical changes observed during meals. A dental articulator used for prosthodontics was chosen as an ideal structure for simulating human mandible kinematics; it has the advantage of being water tight compared to a hexapod device. Using Open Meca® software and three motors the extreme movements of the mandible were replicated. Four thermally controlled tubs were used to mimic physical and chemical changes observed during meal. The chewing bench provides a valuable tool for the evaluation of dental materials; its relevance is based on the simultaneous presence of all parameters that affect dental materials during function (mechanical, thermal and chemical). It is the first stage of work which will be validated a posteriori. This chewing bench would hopefully reduce the gap between in vitro performance and in vivo observation and serve as a benchmark for existing materials and as a device for testing new ones.