Impact response of periodontal tissues

A new impact response method using a fracture of a pencil-lead to produce an excitation pulse is proposed. Impact excitations (rectangular pulse, triangular pulse and half-sine pulse) are strictly given in physical and mathematical definitions and complete solutions to the impact excitations are provided for Noyes' model of the human tooth. When a relatively long triangular pulse is applied to Noyes' model, which can express the physical characteristic of periodontal tissues, a sinusoidal damped vibration of a single degree-of-freedom model is approximately obtained. The acceleration response is characterised by the physical parameters (T, δ and A_o) and mechanical elements (m₁, c₁ and k) of which a single degree-of-freedom model is composed. By means of this method, the values of the parameters and elements in the cases of healthy maxillary, healthy mandibular and pathological mandibular incisors are obtained. The single degree-of-freedom model can express the high-frequency spectra of Noyes' model. The pathological tooth is characterised by a longer damped time constant and a larger acceleration maximum. This impact response method can effectively be applied to clinical diagnosis in view of the physical parameters and mechanical elements which have been derived.