Photoelastic stress analysis of hemimandibulectomy bone reconstruction devices.

The results presented show the relative importance of muscle force and occlusal resistance locations and prosthesis/hemimandible interface length. For the prosthesis design used, the addition of muscle function on the prosthesis side has little effect upon bone stress. However, occlusal resistance on the prosthesis side produces much more stress in the bone than other resistance positions. Stress produced by the shorter prosthesis is higher at the areas of bolt/bone interface than for the long prosthesis. However, superimposed inherent stress patterns somewhat obscured the comparison with longer prostheses.