![]() In this project, we leverage the deformable microfluidics to reproduce the microtubules’ flow to address the issues. The lacking of experiments is partially attributed to the difficulty in measurements and ethical concerns in physical experiments. Despite limited computational simulation studies 12, 13, the complicated fluid–structure dynamics has only been validated to a limited extent with fluid dynamics experiments 14 and a theoretical model is needed to understand the fundamental mechanisms. Specifically, the thermal deformation of the microtubules would cause a microflow inside the tubules to form a shearing stress to stimulate the odontoblast at the end of the channels. The most popular theory of the pain generation and transmission is the hydrodynamic theory 11, which attributes dental pain sensation to the stimulation of mechano-sensitive nociceptors as a consequence of dentinal fluid movement within dentinal microtubules. It is critical to understand how the tooth thermal pain is generated and transmitted to the tooth innervation system through this microtubule structure for oral care industry to design effective tooth pain therapy. Most of the dentinal microtubules are filled with non-myelinated terminal fibrils, odontoblastic processes (extension of odontoblast), and dentinal fluid 10. Numerous dentinal microtubules are radiated from pulp wall to exterior dentine-enamel junction (DEJ) 9. In this project, we demonstrate that this technology can be used to understand the mechanosensitive ion channels in dentine tubules, which cause dentin hypersensitivity problems for over 3 million people each year in the United States 8. This emerging technology has been utilized in automated liquid transport 2, 3, particle/cell sorting 4, 5, and cell mechanics characterization 6, 7. Moreover, an overshooting and oscillation phenomenon is observed by reducing the head loss coefficient by a few orders which could be the key to explain the dentine hypersensitivity caused by the liquid movement in the dentine tubules.ĭeformable microfluidics is a unique type of microsystems that possesses at least one deformable sidewall and can be actuated with external applied pressure 1. ![]() A theoretical model is developed based on the unsteady Bernoulli equation and can well predict the ending point of the liquid displacement as well as the dynamics process, regardless of the wall thickness. The experiments show that the meniscus sharply increased in the first 10th of second and the increase is nonlinearly proportional to the applied pressure. ![]() The Polydimethylsiloxane thin sidewalls of the microfluidic chip are deformed with air pressure ranging from 50 to 500 mbar to move the liquid meniscus in the central liquid channel. A deformable microfluidic system and a fluidic dynamic model have been successfully coupled to understand the dynamic fluid–structure interaction in transient flow, designed to understand the dentine hypersensitivity caused by hydrodynamic theory.
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