Cyclic creep and fracture of dental amalgam

The creep strain rate and fracture of several dental amalgams has been shown to be markedly dependent on the type of loading applied. Cyclic loading typical of the in vivo situation increases creep rates and reduces times to fracture when analysis is based on a Mechanical Equation of State. The cyclic strain rate enhancement over static loading is highest for conventional amalgam while the modern ternary alloys show the smallest increases.