Abstract
Publisher Summary Fracture mechanics is a relatively young discipline, the foundations of which are regarded as having been laid by the pioneering work early in the 20th century. In general, the characterisation of brittle materials/interfaces should be based on fracture mechanics investigations. Flaws in brittle materials, unlike ductile materials, do not allow the blunting of a crack and the relaxation of concentrated stresses. Consequently, the fracture is initiated at the critical flaw and usually propagates catastrophically through the specimen. This chapter presents a succinct, but comprehensive, review of the application of fracture mechanics methodology in the characterisation of hard tooth tissues, dental materials and dentally related adhesive interfaces. It is hypothesised that the results of fracture crack propagation studies will provide better predictors for the in vivo performance of restorative materials and restored teeth. Fracture mechanics investigations could lead to the optimization of not only the structure of materials and interfaces but also of the design of restorations.
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