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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Mimicking and Measuring Occlusal Erosive Tooth Wear with the "Rub&Roll" and Non-contact Profilometry
Published on: February 2, 2018
[Study on micro-hardness and wear resistance of human tooth at different depth]
Jie Zhang1, Hong Li, Zhongrong Zhou
1Tribology Research Institute, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031.
Abstract:
Micro-hardness of human teeth was measured by micro hardnessmentry at different depths i.e. enamal, enamelo-dentinal junction and dentin. A simulated dental friction test was conducted of respectively in these three areas, opposing pure titanium ball under a modified fretting machine. The results showed that micro-hardness is 320.40 +/- 22.77 HV of enamal, 232.26 +/- 32.31 HV of enamelo-dentinal junction, and 61.17 +/- 9.42 HV of dentin (P < 0.05). Wear depth is 17.33 +/- 0.58 microns of enamal, 49.44 +/- 16.47 microns of enamelo-dentinal junction and 95.20 +/- 15.07 microns of dentin(P < 0.05). Wear resistance of enamal is much better than that of dentin's. This preliminary investigation should be very useful in clinical applications.
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