HiBi FBG are used to demonstrate a technique to evaluate orthodontic forces. The experiments are performed in an artificial maxilla supporting dental wax and metal teeth. The teeth are instrumented using an orthodontic technique and loads are applied representing auxiliary appliance. The values of the loads (extra-oral) are based on clinical applications. It is demonstrated that the tooth vestibular surface is subject to a force of 0.13 N. The size and sensitivity of the FBG allow for the determination of forces applied orthogonally to the surface of the teeth.

This paper describes the application of fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors to measure strains at the outer surface of a mandible. The strains were correlated to identical ones obtained with a numerical finite element model. For this purpose, a synthetic mandible was used and 4 Bragg sensors were glued to the mandible. Strain patterns were assessed for different load configurations which included the forces of the masseter and temporal muscles and occlusion loads on different tooth (incisor, canine and molar). Overall the strains obtained using different measuring methods were identical, namely for the case of symmetric loading. When loading was non-symmetric, strain differences were observed at one sensor.

No abstract

No abstract

Implementation of a strain tuned linear cavity EDF laser for interrogation of multiplexed FBG sensors is reported. A high-strength draw-tower FBG is used as the mechanically tunable element allowing for the wavelength sweeping of the laser. A simple algorithm to process the noisy acquired data and identify the peak of the FBG sensors spectra is proposed. These two techniques are able to improve the reliability of multiplexed FBG interrogation systems using mechanically tunable FBG and decrease the cost of systems that use conventional tuning elements in the optical circuit.