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Form & Function The world of design is a delicate balance between form and function. In other words, the way the product works or operates vs. the way the product looks. Those who are mainly concerned with the functionality of a device are more engineer types, while those who only care about the device's aesthetic presentation are more artistic. Left brained and right brained respectively. A simple glance around your immediate location will offer up a plethora of design choices for you to critique. Let’s discuss some examples and then apply these design concepts to our teeth. Cars. I love cars. I fantasize about owning a classic car at some point in my life. I’m partial to the early 60’s Lincoln Continentals. Every year automakers present what are known as Concept Cars at the major car shows around the world. During the design phase, I imagine the artists lock out the engineers and design what they want without the “functional” constraints of realistic road travel. It should come as no surprise that these “concept” cars look phenomenal, but the actual consumer model that is released is far less exciting. The engineers get their hands on the drawings and make
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by Dr. John F. Miller
sure it meets the functional requirements of efficient aerodynamics and fuel usage. They also make sure that the shape of the vehicle can safely contain the engine and drivetrain along with the safety devices required by law. The car emerges much less sexy but much more functional. Let’s move on to robots. Robots are a construct of science fiction with the first mention of them in the 1920’s. For decades they were just fantasy and thought to be unrealistic but as technology has advanced, they are becoming more present and accessible to society. As we examine the design (form and function) of robots throughout the years we see them becoming more and more “animal” like. Meaning they have a rigid jointed skeleton with hydraulics and pistons which mimic our individual muscles. The advances in computer processing speed and efficiency has allowed engineers to simply copy mammalian anatomy. We have all seen the videos out of Boston Dynamics depicting a two-legged (humanlike) and a four-legged (doglike) robot navigating obstacles smoothly, eliminating the “herky-jerky” movements that are typically attributed to robots. If you're like me these robots creep you out. The design process has sacrificed some form in the name of function.
Robot design has trended more and more towards mimicking our own natural design for good reason, it is extremely efficient and functional. As for the form? I think we all look pretty good. One of the many design features of the human body is the dentition, which refers to the teeth collectively. The human body comes with 20 primary teeth (aka baby teeth). These baby teeth are then replaced by the secondary premolars, canines, and incisors. In addition to these, 3 secondary molars grow in each corner for a total of 32 teeth. Each and every tooth that appears in our mouths has a specific individual function along with its role in the overall function of your teeth (dentition) as a whole. Let’s perform an exercise. Everyone bite your teeth together and keep them touching throughout this entire process. Now, with teeth touching, slide your lower jaw to the left and then to the right. If everything is functioning properly the only teeth that should be touching during this movement are your upper and lower Canine teeth. This is referred to as Canine Guidance and ensures that your back teeth don't contact when the jaw is slid to the side. This is important because the back teeth are good at taking longitudinal forces (straight up and down), but they are not built to take off-center forces (side to side).