International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Developments [ICRAMID - 2014]

The Finite Element Method: A Tool to Evaluate Shear

Bond Strength of Dental Bracket
Vijaykumar Hiremath*

Girija Bidarimath

Basavaraj Endigeri

Department of Mechanical Engineering,

Basaveshwar Engineering College,
Bagalkot, Karnataka, India.
girija.bidarimath@gmail.com,
brendigeri@rediffmail.com

Department of Mechanical Engineering,

Siddaganga Institute of Technology,
Tumkur, Karnataka, India.
hiremath.vijaykumar@gmail.com

Keywords: FEM, Shear Bond strength, Dental Bracket, Orthodontics, Vonmisses Stress
Abstract
In this paper finite element model of steel dental bracket is generated along with bonding agent, enamel
& stress analysis is carried out on the bracket for different loading conditions. Three dimensional finite
element model developed are constrained with boundary condition that resembles to the reality. The
Vonmisses stress is recorded for each loading conditions and compared with experimental results. The
experimental work for 60 samples were carried out on Universal testing machine at material testing
laboratory, Basaveshwar Engineering College, Bagalkot. It is found from FEM results that the shear
bonding strength for different loadings from 60 N to 80 N varies from 7.276 N/mm2 to 9.7N/mm2,
which are closer to experimental values with acceptable error. The study reveals that Finite Element
Method can be used as a strong tool to analyze the dental bracket and study different parameters to
improve its performance and to avoid time and cost required for experimentation.
1. Introduction
Orthodontics is a branch of dentistry, which deals with the alignment of teeth. Orthodontics is the
specific area of the dental profession that has its responsibility, the study and supervision of growth and
development of the dentition and its related anatomical structures from birth to dental maturity,
including all preventive and corrective procedures of dental irregularities requiring the repositioning of
the teeth by functional and mechanical means to establish normal occlusion and pleasing facial
contours. A bracket is defined as a device that projects horizontally to support auxillaries and is open on
one side usually in the vertical or horizontal (1). Bond strength is an important consideration for the
bonding of brackets to teeth. Shear bond strength depends on various factors including the adhesive
properties of the bonding materials, the attachment at the different interphases like the tooth to
composite interphase and the composite to bracket interphase, as well as the polymerization of the
composite bonding material. Bond strength determines the amount of force delivered and also affects
the treatment duration (2).

Fig. 1 Tooth Bonded with Orthodontic Bracket

ISBN 978-93-80609-17-1
18

International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Developments [ICRAMID - 2014]

2. Materials and Methods

2.1 FE Model Generation
The bone model is built using CT scan of human maxilla at canine region. The geometry is transferred
to the graph sheet and grid points are located. The points are transferred to the ANSYS through APDL
commands. The assembly of the whole geometry is done and meshed using HYPERMESH. The
meshed geometry is applied with different material properties for cartical, cancellous, dentine, bracket
and resin. The results are captured for Vonmisses stress to check failure condition. All the results are
represented with necessary graphical plots.
2.1.1 Modeling of the Bone Structure
The geometry is built based on CT scan taken on the human maxilla. The thickness of cortical bone is
taken 2mm around the cancellous bone. Cartical bone is the outer part and stronger part of the bone.
Cancellous bone is the soft member of the bone, which is inside the bone geometry. Cartical bone is
shown by maroon color and cancellous bone is shown by blue color for identification.

Fig 2 Maxilla bone with Cartical & Cancellous

The canine tooth is built from standard dimensions specified (3). Initially points are marked and lines
are created to form the geometry. The geometry of the canine is built from the areas using Boolean
operations.

Fig 3 Canine tooth

Different parts of the geometry are represented with different colors. Boolean operations are used to
assemble and connect the components. The crown part of the canine is outside for a depth of 10mm and
remaining geometry is inside the bone. Fig 4 shows the complete assembly of the tooth and associated
bones.

Fig 4 Complete geometry of bone and Canine tooth

ISBN 978-93-80609-17-1
19

International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Developments [ICRAMID - 2014]

Meshing of the complete geometry was done using Hypermesh 9.0. Figure 5 shows the complete
meshed geometry with bracket.

Fig 5 Meshed geometry of the problem with Bracket

2.2 Material Properties

The material properties of bone were assigned based on two different procedures:
1) All bone elements were either assigned a Youngs modulus of 14,700 MPa and a Poissons ratio
of 0.3, thereby representing a homogeneous distribution of bone properties.
2) Different Youngs moduli were assigned to each element individually, based on the morphology
of the bone obtained from the CT scans.
Table 1 Material Properties

Component
Canine
Cartical Bone
Cancellous Bone
Wire & Bracket (Stainless Steel)
Bonding agent (Transbond -3M
Unitek)

Youngs Modulus
14700
14700
490
210000

Poissons Ratio
0.31
0.30
0.30
0.30

9000

0.31

2.3 Boundary conditions of the problem

The below picture shows applied boundary conditions on the problem. The bone faces are
constrained in all directions and a load of 75 N is applied on the bracket face. Cartical, cancellous
bone, brackets are shown with different colors. Dense mesh is created on the canine and bracket for
better results.

Fig 6 Boundary conditions of the problem

The above component is analyzed for different loadings and shear-bonding strength is compared with
experimental data.
2.4 Experimental Set up
Shear bond strength test is carried out on Universal Test Machine (3M FEI) having a capacity of 3 ton
ISBN 978-93-80609-17-1
20

International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Developments [ICRAMID - 2014]

(3000 kg) available at material testing lab, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, B.E.C Bagalkot. The
machine was set and calibrated according to manufacturers instructions. The metallic cup with the
embedded tooth and its bonded bracket were positioned in the jig, such that the metallic cup is
perpendicular to the jig, so that the labial surface is parallel to the force during the shear strength test.
The steel wire was used to apply load at the bracket adhesive interface. The brackets were shear tested
to failure using a load cell of 12N (346.5 Kg) and a crosshead speed of 5.0 mm / min. The force
producing failure was recorded in Newton and converted into force per unit area (MPa) by dividing the
measured force values by the surface area of the bracket. The surface area of the mesh was
approximately 8.75 mm2 .
2.5 Sources of data
60 human premolars, intact and non carious were collected.
Premolar brackets
Bonding agent (Transbond XT bonding system)
Universal Testing Machine
The experiment was repeated for all the 60 brackets and values are recorded. The mean of the 60
results is 0.0771 0.0124 (mean standard deviation). Dimensions of the brackets are given in table 2
Table 2 Dimensions of the Bracket

Bracket
Dimensions

Length (l) in mm
2.5

Breadth (b) in mm
3.5

Fig 7 Loading of the sample for shear testing in UTM

2.5 Theoretical Calculation of SBS (Shear Bonding Strength)

Shear bond strength of the bracket is calculated using the following relation.
We know that,
Force in N
0.0771 X 1000
Shear bonding strength =
=
2
Area in mm
2.5 X 3.5
8.81 N/mm2

3. Results and Discussions

The nature of the forces directed onto orthodontic brackets in the mouth is likely to be a combination of
shear, tensile and torsion (4). The bond strength of bracket -adhesive - enamel system in orthodontic
bonding varies and depends on factors such as the type of adhesive, bracket base design, enamel
morphology, appliance force systems and the clinician's technique. The universal testing machine used
in vitro studies is capable of producing only pure debonding forces (shear, tensile or torsion) not the
ISBN 978-93-80609-17-1
21

International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Developments [ICRAMID - 2014]

combination of them and other conditions is not possible to simulate. In addition, the rate of loading for
the universal testing machine is constant, whereas the rate of loading for in vivo debonding is not
standardized or constant (5). It is obvious that in vitro studies cannot provide sufficient information
regarding combination of forces and numerous factors involved in orthodontic treatment but they are
useful as a guideline for the clinician in the selection of the bracket/adhesive system to be used in
clinical settings (6). Reynolds in 1975 (7) suggested that for an adhesive system to have acceptable
clinical performance, in vitro bond strength of 6 - 9 MPa is required. Although strong bond that
adhesive can offer is desirable in orthodontic practice, bond strength values higher then 9.7 Mpa can
lead to enamel fractures (8).

Fig 8 Shear Bonding strength of Bracket at 75 N Load

The bracket is subjected to varying load of 60 N to 80 N and the corresponding results are noted. The
behaviors of the brackets for varying load conditions are plotted. From the below figures it is evident
that the shear bonding strength of the orthodontic bracket lies between 7 to 9 MPa, which was
compared with experimental values. Von-misses criteria is used for validation of the results through
FEM. The bracket is subjected to varying load of 60 N to 80 N and the corresponding results are noted.
The behaviors of the brackets for varying load conditions are plotted. From the below figures it is
evident that the shear bonding strength of the orthodontic bracket lies between 7 to 9 MPa, which was
compared with experimental values. The orthodontic bracket was subjected to the varying load from
60N to 80 N in increment of 1N per iteration.

Fig 9 Overall Vonmisses stress in the structure

At 75N load, the shear bonding strength of the dental bracket exceeds 9 MPa. The stress distribution at
this load is captured for all the associated bones and bracket. The following figures will give the details
of the stress distribution. The below picture shows 65.178 MPa on the cartical bone. Mainly stress is
concentrated near the cutout region due to canine insertion.

ISBN 978-93-80609-17-1
22

International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Developments [ICRAMID - 2014]

Fig 10 Vonmisses stress in Cartical Bone

The below figure shows vonmisses stress in the cancellous bone. Maximum stress is around 1.049 MPa
near the canine position. This can be attributed due to sharp change in geometry due to canine insertion.

Fig 11 Vonmisses stress in cancellous Bone

The experiment was repeated for all the 60 brackets by increasing the load by 1N from 60 N to 80 N.
At 16th iteration, i.e., at 75 N the shear bonding strength of the bracket exceeded 9 MPa. The
experimental and FEM results are tabulated and compared by plotting a graph. The graph shows a
linear relation between the experimental and FEM results. The FEM results are close to the
experimental values, which are shown in the below graph.
Table 3 Experimental results Vs FEM results

Sl
No

Load
in N

FEM SBS
in N/mm2

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70

7.276
7.397
7.518
7.639
7.76
7.881
8.002
8.124
8.245
8.366
8.487

Experimental
SBS
in N/mm2
6.86
6.97
7.09
7.20
7.31
7.43
7.54
7.66
7.77
7.89
8.00

%ge
Error

Sl
No

5.76
5.75
5.75
5.75
5.74
5.74
5.74
5.75
5.74
5.74
5.74

12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21

ISBN 978-93-80609-17-1
23

Load FEM SBS Experiment

in N in N/mm2
al SBS
in N/mm2
71
8.609
8.11
72
8.73
8.23
73
8.851
8.34
74
8.972
8.46
75
9.094
8.57
76
9.215
8.69
77
9.336
8.80
78
9.457
8.91
79
9.579
9.03
80
9.7
9.14

%ge
Error
5.75
5.74
5.74
5.74
5.75
5.74
5.74
5.74
5.75
5.74

International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Developments [ICRAMID - 2014]

Comparison of Experimental results Vs FEM results

10

9.5
FEM SBS in N /Sq.mm
Experimental SBS in N /Sq.mm

SBS in N / Sq. mm

8.5

7.5

6.5
60

62

64

66

68

70
Load in N

72

74

76

78

80

Fig 13 Comparison of Experimental results Vs FEM results

4. Conclusions
The FEA of dental brackets is carried out using ANSYS 12.0 tool for different loads and the results are
captured for each loading. The shear bond strength of orthodontic bracket exceeds 9 MPa at 75 N load.
Reynolds in 1975 (7) suggested that for an adhesive system to have acceptable clinical performance, in
vitro bond strength of 6 9 MPa is required. It is found from FEM results that the shear bonding
strength to loading from 60 N to 80 N varies from 7.276 N/mm2 to 9.7 N/mm2, which are closer to
experimental values with acceptable error.
The study reveals that Finite Element Method can be used as a strong tool to analyze the dental bracket
and study different parameters to improve its performance so as to avoid time and cost required for
experimentation.
Further the work can be extended to analyze the recycled brackets and performance of the recycled
brackets and new brackets can be compared.
5. References
[1] Textbook of Orthodontics By Gurkeerat Singh, Second Edition: 2007
[2] Newman GV. Bonding plastic orthodontic attachments to tooth enamel. J New Jersey Dent Assoc
1964; 34:581-4
[3] Wheelers Dental Anatomy, physiology and occulusion seventh edition, A Prism Indian
Edition.,1993,pg no 176-177.
[4] B Zachrisson, R L Vanarsdal. (Bonding in Orthodontics): Graber. Current principles and
Techniques; Mosby Year Book, St Lois (1994):542
[5] R Greenlaw, D G Way, A G Khadry. An in vitro evaluation of a light-cured resin bonding systems.
American Journal of Orthodontic and Dentofacial Orthopedics 96(1989): 214

ISBN 978-93-80609-17-1
24