Understanding the resistance of teeth to wear is an important area of study in the dental medical field. Researchers want to understand information about wear tracks such as depth, width, surface area, material lost and perhaps also wear rate.
Profilometers from Nanovea fit this role very well due to their ability to measure most surface finishes and a variety of sample sizes and geometries. Their profilometers use axial chromatism which is a white light technique able to gather raw height data with no need for complicated algorithms.
In this application note the researcher has used the ST400 non contact profilometer to scan the surface of a tooth mounted in epoxy which has been through a chewing simulator. The results show an interesting curved wear track and the researcher was able to determine the surface area, volume, maximum depth and mean depth of the wear track. The researcher was able to look in more detail at cross sectional areas of the wear track by taking line profiles from the data.
If you would like to see the full copy of this application note please contact us.
