Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Sport Sciences for Health https://doi.org/10.1007/s11332-019-00575-9 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Does silica–nylon mesh improves the biomechanical response of custom‑made mouthguards? João Paulo Mendes Tribst 1,2  · Amanda Maria de Oliveira Dal Piva 1,2  · Paula Carolina Komori de Carvalho 1  · Pedro Henrique Pereira de Queiroz Gonçalves 3  · Alexandre Luiz Souto Borges 1  · Tarcisio José de Arruda Paes‑Junior 1 Received: 28 January 2019 / Accepted: 17 July 2019 © Springer-Verlag Italia S.r.l., part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract Purpose Mouthguards are used for injury prevention due to the high risk of dental and craniofacial injuries during sports activities. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the efect of silica–nylon mesh on the biomechanical performance of custom-made mouthguards using the fnite element method. Methods Two custom-made mouthguards were modeled according to the presence or not of silica–nylon mesh. A 500 N load was applied in the region of the upper central incisors for both models. A mesh convergence test of 10% was conducted in the computer-aided analysis software to reduce the error during the results processing. An ideal contact interface was used between all contacts, simulating a situation in which the athlete would not lose his mouthguard upon impact. Also, the con- tact between the reinforcement and the mouthguard was defned as frictionless after a microscopic investigation. Maximum principal stress parameter was analyzed for bone, mouthguard, teeth, and skull displacement. Stress peaks for mouthguards and teeth were analyzed using one-way ANOVA. Results The results showed that the mesh presence neither infuenced the skull displacement or the stress distribution in the bone, teeth or mouthguard. ANOVA showed no diference between the mesh presence or not, with 8.75 ± 2.00 MPa mean value for the mouthguard and 9.88 ± 2.75 MPa for the teeth. Conclusions The presence of a silica–nylon mesh did not modify the biomechanical response in the bone, teeth or mouth- guard. In addition, even with the mouthguards in position, some damage can occur after the trauma. Keywords Dental trauma · Mouthguard · Finite element analysis · Shock absorption · Biomechanical response * Amanda Maria de Oliveira Dal Piva amodalpiva@gmail.com João Paulo Mendes Tribst joao.tribst@ict.unesp.br Paula Carolina Komori de Carvalho paula.komori@unesp.br Pedro Henrique Pereira de Queiroz Gonçalves pedroqueiroz@id.uf.br Alexandre Luiz Souto Borges alexandre.borges@unesp.br Tarcisio José de Arruda Paes-Junior tarcisio.paes@unesp.br 1 Department of Dental Materials and Prosthodontics, São Paulo State University (Unesp), Institute of Science and Technology, Av. Eng Francisco José Longo nº 777. Jardim São Dimas, São José dos Campos, SP 12245-000, Brazil 2 Department of Dental Materials Science, Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA), Universiteit van Amsterdam and Vrije Universiteit, Gustav Mahlerlaan #3004, 1081 LA Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, The Netherlands 3 Fluminense Federal University (UFF), Rua Miguel de Frias, 9, Niterói, RJ 24220-900, Brazil