ABSTRACT
Failure of a dental restoration may cause even more problems for the patient than missing teeth. Therefore, there are a variety of options that should be considered and analysed. This work focuses on a specific type of dental restoration, the adhesive dental bridges. Adhesive dental bridges, also known as Maryland bridges, can be an alternative solution to conventional bridges or even implants, but it must guarantee the mechanical resistance of the bridge, to obtain a long and functional replacement. The main objective of this work was to study the effect of different resin-cements and the use of a two-retainer design or a single-retainer design on the mechanical resistance of an adhesive dental bridge. Three numerical methods were used: Finite Element Method (FEM), Radial Point Interpolation Method (RPIM) and Natural Neighbour Radial Point Interpolation Method (NNRPIM). The results showed that the connectors are the weakest areas because this is the area with highest stress concentration. The single-retainer design increases the risk of debonding. In addition, the results obtained using meshless methods are in agreement with the FEM.
