Modeling of the Stress Distribution in Temporomandibular Joint with Subtotal Replacement
Abstract
The temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is one of the most complicated joints of the human skeleton. It is a complex, sensitive and highly mobile joint which works bilaterally so each side influences the contralateral joint and because of this the distribution of the stresses is changed in the healthy joint as well. Detailed knowledge about function these are necessary for clinical application of temporomandibular joint prosthesis and also help us estimate the lifetime of the prosthesis a possibilities of alteration in the contra lateral joint components. The mathematical model of TMJ with replacement is based on the theory of semi-coercive unilateral contact problems in linear elasticity and on finite element approximation. The geometrical model of the TMJP was created using the dataset of axial computer tomography. The main objective of our investigation is to discuss numerical results for model of TMJ with subtotal prosthesis and to characterize processes in joint as well as in replacement.