MEASUREMENT OF HARDNESS OF ORAL SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMAS

Abstract

This study was designed to estimate objectively the hardness of the oral mucosa which is not directly supported by the bone. A new, easy-to-use hardness-measurement apparatus for measuring the oral muosa without the underlining bone was manufactured for trial use. The hardness values of the oral mucosa were evaluated quantitatively, by pressing 2mm into the mucosa with a 2-mm-in-diameter hand-held probe of the hardness-measurement apparatus. Experimental and clinical confirmation was made that practical errors in hardness values are quite permissible when using this apparatus.
The average hardness of 32 cases of squamous cell carcinomas of the tongue, the floor of the mouth and the buccal mucosa was 37.7gf and the average hardness of normal mucosa was 4.8 gf with this apparatus. The results showed that the value of measurement of squamous cell carcinoma was as much as 2.3-19.1 times in comparison with the normal mucosa.
Squamous cell carcinomas were ascertained to be statistically harder than the normal mucosa (p<0.001) and the tumor margins may be far more precisely clarified with this apparatus than with the human finger alone.