Strain Distribution in the Facial Skeleton Arising from Orthodontic Appliance Activity

The methods of biomechanical research and the principles arising from its results have been successfully applied to orthodontics. From the wide range of problems that biomechanics deals with, orthodontics primarily utilizes the results of research in investigations of bone properties of the dento-facial complex and its reaction to physiological and non-physiological forces. The interpretation of the way strain acts on the above mentioned bones is an extremely difficult problem because of the complex anatomical structure and anisotropic properties of the bones. In physical terms, bone acts as a viscoelastic system, so that its deformation depends not only on the magnitude and direction of the applied force but also on the time during which the force acts /1/.