Özgün SUNAR, Tuğba YILDIRIM, Arife KAPTAN
Clinical Dentistry and Research - 2026;50(2):119-128
Background and Aim: The biomechanical behavior of restorations under forces may affect the treatment success. The aim was to evaluate the stress distribution in endodontically treated and non-endodontically treated mandibular deciduous second molars restored with different crown materials (stainless steel crown (SSC), pediatric zirconia crown (PZC) and glass fiber crown (GFC)) by using finite element analysis (FEA). Materials and Methods: A virtual tooth geometry was created in Solidworks software using a computed tomography image of the tooth. The root canal of the deciduous tooth was filled with zinc oxide eugenol cement to simulate endodontic treatment. In order to analyse the stress on the obtained models caused by different crown materials (SSC, PZC, GFC), a force of 200 N was applied to the tooth crown as normal and oblique in ANSYS Workbench R22 software. Overall, twelve finite element models were developed and analyzed in terms of maximum von Mises stress and maximum deformation. Results: Stress levels in the models under oblique loading were higher than those under normal loading conditions. Regarding the crown material, PZC was subjected to the highest stress under all loading conditions, while the average lowest stress was found in GFC. In endodontically treated models, root stress levels were found to be 1000 times higher than in models without endodontic treatment. GFC showed higher deformation values than other crowns. Conclusion: SSC exhibited lower maximum von Mises stress than PZC and lower deformation than GFC in most analyses. SSC can be considered a suitable material for endodontically treated primary second molars.
