Mechanical evaluation of mandibular fractures stabilized with absorbable implants or intraoral splints in cats
Date
2025-01-07
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Frontiers in Veterinary Science
Abstract
Introduction: The goal of this cadaver study in cats was to compare the mechanical properties of intact mandibles (C) with mandibles whose simulated fracture was located between the third and fourth premolar teeth and repaired with four possible treatments: (1) Stout multiple loop interdental wiring plus bis-acryl composite intraoral splint (S); (2) modified Risdon interdental wiring plus bis-acryl composite intraoral splint (R); (3) ultrasound-aided absorbable fixation plate (P); and (4) ultrasound-aided absorbable fixation mesh (M).
Materials and methods: Thirty feline mandibles were randomly assigned to the control and treatment groups. Mandibles were loaded by cantilever bending on the canine tooth, first in non-destructive cyclic loading followed by destructive ramp-to-failure loading.
Results: Cyclic loading showed no differences between the treatment groups in angular deflection (a measure of sample flexion under non-destructive loads); however, the R group had significantly higher angular deflection than the C group. In destructive testing, no differences in mechanical properties were found between the treatment groups; however, all treatment groups demonstrated significantly lower maximum bending moment, bending stiffness, energy to failure, and maximum force when compared to the control group. The main mode of failure of the intraoral splint groups (S and R) was fracture of the bis-acryl composite (50%), and the main mode of failure of the absorbable fixation groups (P and M) was fracture of the pins (91.7%).
Discussion: Intraoral splint and absorbable fixation methods have low strength and stiffness. The four treatments tested provided similar stabilization of mandibular fractures located between the third and fourth premolar teeth.
Description
This article was originally published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science by Frontiers Media. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2024.1525586.
© 2025 Castejon-Gonzalez, Friday, Hast and Reiter. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Keywords
feline, mandibular fracture, absorbable plate, absorbable mesh, mechanical testing, deflection angle
Citation
Castejon-Gonzalez AC, Friday CS, Hast MW and Reiter AM (2025) Mechanical evaluation of mandibular fractures stabilized with absorbable implants or intraoral splints in cats. Front. Vet. Sci. 11:1525586. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1525586