Emerging Technologies and Performing Materials in Manufacturing Dental Prostheses: The Role of Chewing Simulators

Chewing simulators are essential tools in dentistry, as they enable the performance of innovative dental restorative materials to be analysed under realistic conditions. These devices replicate the complex movements and forces involved in mastication, enabling simulations of material wear and fatigue resistance. Their design and manufacture require a multidisciplinary approach that integrates mechanical engineering, materials science and dentistry, allowing the development of tools capable of improving the understanding of chewing processes and the effectiveness of dental treatments. This research focuses on a review of the main types of chewing articulators, highlighting the design and manufacturing aspects necessary to analyse the wear and the fatigue resistance of restorative materials. Construction characteristics, technologies employed and the most effective configurations for simulating realistic intra-oral conditions, including cyclic movements and variable forces, are highlighted. This study provides an overview of the main types of articulators currently in existence and their fabrication techniques, highlighting the importance of designing accurate, versatile, and increasingly reliable simulators. This allows to improve performance evaluation of dental materials while achieving greater success in patient-centred dental practices.