Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2008

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Broadfield, Douglas C.

Abstract

Humans wean earliest of the apes yet the eruption of their permanent teeth occurs the latest, resulting in an extended period of time where human children must dissipate occlusal loads through a maxilla which includes two sets of dentition. The objective of this study was to gauge whether the developing permanent teeth act as an additional pillar of support in the human face. Finite element models of a human child and chimpanzee infant from the same dental eruption stage were loaded according to 8 different regimes designed to test the effects of material properties. The results show that the architecture and material properties of the immature dentofacial complex have an effect on the dissipation of masticatory loads. One mechanism that may allow human children to chew adult foods earlier is the reduction of stress in bone through the preferential dissipation of loads via stiff material properties (enamel of permanent teeth).

Extent

149 p.

Comments

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Identifier

FA00000925

Format

pdf

Download

Share

COinS