Numerical investigation of the stress distribution of mandible from three kinds of facial type

According to the relations of facial type and mandible configuration, three 3-D finite element models of mandible from three kinds of facial type of square, peaked and circle chin were established to research the influence of mandible configuration on the stress distribution. The distribution of displacement, Von-mises stress and main muscle forces was analyzed comparatively. The results showed that the mandible from different facial type possessed remarkable structural feature. Though the anteroposterior distance of circle chin was lower markedly than those of square and peaked chin, its influence on the distribution of displacement, Von-mises stress and main muscle forces was indistinctive. However, the ramus height of spare chin was higher notably, and its displacement, Von-mises stress and main muscle forces were less than the other two. It is concluded that not only the mandible configuration would affect the stress distribution, but also the influence degree of different location was different. Therefore, in order to obtain more reasonable and comparable FEM results and more explicit guiding significance to clinical treatment, it is necessary to build some criterions for the finite element modeling of mandible, through deeply researching the influence of mandible configuration on the stress distribution.