NANOMECHANICAL INVESTIGATION OF DENTAL RESTORATIVE MATERIALS USING ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY

The dental enamel is the hardest surface of teeth. The lifetime of teeth depends by mechanical and tribological properties of enamel. These properties are influenced by the mastication conditions including humidity, temperature and abrasion effects. The scope of this paper is to analyze the mechanical properties of restorative dental materials using advance techniques more exactly an atomic force microscope with a nanoindentation module. Nanoindentation and nano scratching provides information about hardness, elastic modulus, scratch resistance, also about storage/loss modulus; creep; fracture toughness and compliance, thus assuring you of the most complete surface mechanical testing solution without compromise. These relatively nondestructive mechanical characterization techniques may assist in better understanding the mechanical behavior of the dental materials and thus facilitate their preparation with excellent mechanical and tribological properties.