Purpose: The present study was conducted to investigate the biomechanical response of bovine retrodiscal tissue of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) in compression.
Patients and methods: Using 10 retrodiscal tissues obtained from 10 cattle, the viscoelastic response of the retrodiscal tissue was evaluated by means of stress-strain analyses. These compressive strains were produced at a high strain rate and were kept constant during 5 minutes for stress-relaxation.
Results: Although the stress-strain relationship in the retrodiscal tissue was essentially nonlinear represented by a quadratic or power function of strain, a linear model could reasonably represent its elastic property. In this case, the instantaneous and relaxed moduli were 1.54 and 0.21 MPa, respectively. The stress-relaxation curve showed a marked drop in load during the initial 10 seconds, and the stress reached a steady nonzero level. Furthermore, when using Kelvin's model, a satisfactory agreement can be obtained between the experimental and theoretical stress-relaxation curves.
Conclusion: It is concluded that bovine retrodiscal tissue has a great capacity for energy dissipation during stress-relaxation, although it has little or no function to pull the articular disc back.
Copyright 2002 American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons