A measurement device for the comparative evaluation of proximal teeth contact strengths

Interdental contact forces are important parameters in dentistry. This paper presents an indirect method for the evaluation of contact forces as it is difficult to directly measure the contact strength on a patient. Our method is based on the measurement of forces required to insert and remove a test body into the interdental space. The proposed sensor principle allows us to perform a qualitative comparison of contact strengths of neighbouring teeth. We use a dental floss mounted in a replaceable fork as a disposable test body. Through the application of specific signal processing algorithms we automatically extract the time instances of the test body insertion and retraction and can therefore provide a hand-guided sensor without the need for a fixed geometric reference on the patient.