The biomechanical behaviour of the hyalinized periodontal ligament in dogs during experimental orthodontic tooth movement

During orthodontic tooth movement, the mechanical behaviour of the extracellular matrix of the periodontal ligament (PDL) determines the cellular processes involved in turnover of the PDL and alveolar bone. This mechanical behaviour is the basis for finite element (FE) models and FE analyses. Five young adult male beagle dogs were used to test the null hypothesis that the mechanical behaviour of the PDL is identical in normal and hyalinized PDL. Therefore, tooth transposition was measured after standardized force application by super-elastic nickel titanium (NiTi) coil springs, exerting a constant force of 100 cN for 5 hours in both conditions. A rapid transposition during the first few seconds was found. However, it was significantly less for hyalinized than for non-hyalinized PDL. Subsequently, a short-lived creep movement was found for hyalinized PDL, while creep persisted at the non-hyalinized sides (analysis of variance and Tukey's multiple comparisons post hoc tests). The results showed substantial biomechanical differences between hyalinized and non-hyalinized PDL at different time points (Mann-Whitney). This indicates that FE models in the study of long-term orthodontic tooth movement, which are based solely on the characteristics of normal PDL should be reconsidered.