Abstract
The development of temporomandibular joint implants has involved simplified mechanical tests that apply pure vertical forces or pure rotational movements to the implant. The aim of this study was to develop a biological based mastication mechanism and conduct preliminary testing of a novel temporomandibular joint implant. The mechanism was designed to mimic temporomandibular joint loads by performing compression and anterior/posterior translation. Pilot testing was performed on six implant/joint specimens for seven consecutive hours, completing approximately 22,000 cycles at a frequency of approximately 1 Hz. Each cycle had a joint compression phase (67.3 N over 0.15 s) followed by a translation phase (8.67 N over 0.43 s) that was similar to joint loads/motions that have been reported in vivo. This new mastication mechanism incorporates both anatomical and mechanical variability. The use of biological specimens is an important approach that can help bridge the gap between traditional synthetic implant materials/mechanical testing andin vivotesting.
Highlights
Frayne et al / A mastication mechanism for testing TMJ implants is toward joint protection in the form of synthetic meniscal replacements and bioengineered solutions that use cell growth to replace natural tissues
We developed a new bio-mimetic mechanical mastication mechanism based upon a biologic tissue environment
The ideal step for testing would be to validate our mechanism by applying strain gauges on the condylar neck of the specimens and comparing the experimental data to published strain data from in vivo animals chewing [25]. This newly designed mastication mechanism is capable of applying chewing profiles to implants/joint specimens
Summary
R.J. Frayne et al / A mastication mechanism for testing TMJ implants is toward joint protection in the form of synthetic meniscal replacements (e.g. alloplastic implants) and bioengineered solutions that use cell growth to replace natural tissues (e.g. autogenous implants). Tissueengineered implants have to be implemented at an earlier stage of disease in order to be effective; while, synthetic implants can be used to treat extensively damaged TMJs [29]. Both styles of implant require more research and in order to test them a more sophisticated testing model (involving biological tissues) needs to be developed that can assess the wear and durability of these new replacement modalities
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