Influence of dentures on SAR in the visible Chinese human head voxel phantom exposed to a mobile phone at 900 and 1800 MHz

To investigate the influence of dentures on electromagnetic energy absorption during the daily use of a mobile phone, a high-resolution head phantom based on the Visible Chinese Human dataset was reconstructed. Simulations on phantoms with various dentures were performed by using the finite-difference time-domain method with a 0.47 wavelength dipole antenna and a mobile phone model as radiation sources at 900 and 1800?MHz. The Specific energy Absorption Rate (SAR) values including 1 and 10?g average SAR values were assessed. When the metallic dental crowns with resonance lengths of approximately one-third to one-half wavelength in the tissue nearby are parallel to the radiation source, up to 121.6% relative enhancement for 1?g average SAR and 17.1% relative enhancement for 10?g average SAR are observed due to the resonance effect in energy absorption. When the radiation sources operate in the normal configuration, the 10?g average SAR values are still in compliance with the basic restrictions established by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), indicating that the safety limits will not be challenged by the usage of dentures. Bioelectromagnetics 33:508517, 2012. (C) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.