Life Sciences Commons^™

Bite Force And Stress Content Of Varying Tooth Morphology And Jaw Alignment, Emily Newenhisen

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Biting is one of the primary physical actions against a food substrate involved in the process of mastication and consumption. Different shapes of solidified tissue (e.g., teeth, mandibles) are developed based on dietary preferences of the organism to improve mechanical function. Models of various geometric shapes were used to loosely replicate several common biological tooth structures. As there is little research conducted on tooth penetration force in relation to tooth shape, collection of such data was the main focus of the research. Molariform teeth found in herbivores were represented by the ball model, carnivorous needle-like teeth by cone model, cutting …