Biomechanical characterization of the periodontal ligament: Orthodontic tooth movement.

Objective: To quantify the biomechanical properties of the bovine periodontal ligament (PDL) in postmortem sections and to apply these properties to study orthodontic tooth intrusion using finite element analysis (FEA). We hypothesized that PDL's property inherited heterogeneous (anatomical dependency) and nonlinear stress-strain behavior that could aid FEA to delineate force vectors with various rectangular archwires.

Materials And Methods: A dynamic mechanical analyzer was used to quantify the stress-strain behavior of bovine PDL.