On evaluation of wear resistance of tooth enamel and dental materials

A survey of the literature shows that in many studies on the wear resistance of tooth enamel or dental materials a large scatter of experimental data has been obtained when wear tests were performed at a fixed load. Despite the steady loading, wear conditions vary during sliding, since tooth enamel as well as dental materials have inhomogeneous structure. This leads to changes in contact interactions between sliding surfaces, and as a result, we get changes in the friction and wear behaviour of tested materials. This is why at the same loading the wear can be different. In this study, more reliable approach to evaluation of the wear resistance of human enamel and dental materials is proposed. The procedure is based on the correlation between the volumetric wear and the friction energy dissipated during sliding. The model can be useful to compare the wear resistance of different dental materials tested in different ambient conditions.