Nanomechanical Characterization of Mineralized Tissues in the Oral Cavity

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses use of nanoindentation technique in nanomechanical characterization of mineralized tissues in the oral cavity. Nanoindentation is a proven technique for characterizing the mechanical properties of materials at the nano/microscale. One of the concerns when working with oral mineralized tissues is their small sizes. To overcome this problem, the tissues are sometimes embedded in resins such as polymethyl methacrylate to facilitate handling during processing, as well as to provide mechanical support during indentation. Although infiltration of the embedding material could be prevented by a careful choice of the resin, nanoindentation should only be conducted in areas of the tissues away from the resin–tissue interfaces, since the presence of the resin may alter the mechanical properties of the tissues. This chapter begins with discussing basic data analysis protocol for nanoindentation. Different steps, such as sample preparation, hydration, indepter tips, load function and data analysis, etc., for nanoindentation of oral mineralized tissues are also discussed. It is concluded that accurate nanoindentation measurements on the oral mineralized tissues cannot be achieved using the conventional technique developed for hard, synthetic materials.