Abstract
The prevalence of prosthodontic treatment has been well recognized, and the need is continuously increasing with the ageing population. While the oral mucosa plays a critical role in the treatment outcome, the associated biomechanics is not yet fully understood. Using the literature available, this paper provides a critical review on four aspects of mucosal biomechanics, including static, dynamic, volumetric and interactive responses, which are interpreted by its elasticity, viscosity/permeability, apparent Poisson's ratio and friction coefficient, respectively. Both empirical studies and numerical models are analysed and compared to gain anatomical and physiological insights. Furthermore, the clinical applications of such biomechanical knowledge on the mucosa are explored to address some critical concerns, including stimuli for tissue remodelling (interstitial hydrostatic pressure), pressure–pain thresholds, tissue displaceability and residual bone resorption. Through this review, the state of the art in mucosal biomechanics and their clinical implications are discussed for future research interests, including clinical applications, computational modelling, design optimization and prosthetic fabrication.
Highlights
With an increasing elderly population worldwide, the edentulous group of patients has been continuously expanding, resulting in significantly raised needs for prosthodontic treatments [1,2]
While there are many aspects of the biomechanical responses of the oral mucosa, this study will focus on the four key biomechanical issues that are closely relevant to clinical applications, thereby revealing the biological insights to these mechanical models
With the rapid developments in molecular and cellular biology, further information has been gradually revealed as to the physiological reactions of the oral mucosa to occlusal loading, including the histological changes and biochemical reactions. Such knowledge assists with comprehending the biomechanical responses of the mucosa and provides valuable insights into the numerical modelling of these responses from clinical observations
Summary
With an increasing elderly population worldwide, the edentulous group of patients has been continuously expanding, resulting in significantly raised needs for prosthodontic treatments [1,2]. The oral mucosa beneath the denture plays a critical role in distributing occlusal loads to the underlying bony ridge over a large denture-supporting tissue interface [6,7,8,9]. Within this highly vascular tissue, the functional pressure, namely interstitial fluid pressure (IFP) or hydrostatic pressure, has been identified as one of the most important aetiological factors causing the accompanying clinical complications [9,10,11,12,13,14]. This review will showcase the state of the art in mucosal biomechanics research and reveals the potential research opportunities on fundamental biomechanics, clinical applications and design optimization
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