Development of a fundamental measuring system to analyze motion and contact force during toothbrushing

Abstract

Periodontal disease develops around gingiva and periodontal tissues and is morbidity which affects functions of gingiva and periodontal tissues. It is major disease as well as dental caries and considered to be one of the causes of cardio vascular disease such as arteriosclerosis or hypertension. Therefore, prevention of periodontal disease is deeply related to prevention chronic cardiovascular disease. The best way of prevention of periodontal disease is to learn proper toothbrushing to scrape plaque because periodontal disease is caused by bacteria in plaque which accumulates between teeth and gingiva. To learn or assess toothbrushing, some assistive devices combining toothbrush with sensor system were suggested. Most of them are equipped with only motion sensor to analyze the motion of toothbrush. We assumed that contact forces are important not only movements of toothbrush. In this work, we developed a fundamental measuring system to analyze motion and contact force during toothbrushing.