Occlusal Contact Area

Comparison of Dental Prescale with Modified Black Silicon Methods

Abstract

This study clinically compared the accuracy of the Dental Prescale with modified black silicon methods in the measurement of the occlusal contact area. Five subjects who satisfied the requirement for this study and did not have any periodontal disease participated in this study (mean age: 25.6± 0.8). The tested sites were the left and right molar regions. Occlusion at the intercuspal oc-clusal position was obtained by applying the Dental Prescale (50 H, type R) and modified black silicon (Bite Checker) methods 3 times respectively per subject. An NIH image and a Power Macintosh 7500 computer were used to calculate the occlusal contact area. An Occluser (FDD 703) was also used with the Dental Prescale method. The results were as follows: 1. The occlusal contact shape obtained by the Dental Prescale method was differ-ent from that by the modified black silicon method, 2. The occlusal contact areas measured by the Dental Prescale method (Occluser, 17.6± 7.2 mm², NIH image, 12.1± 4.5 mm²) were statistically smal-ler (p<0.05) than those measured by the modified black silicon method (39.8± 13.9 mm²), 3. This difference in the occlusal contact area was greatest for the first premolar, followed by the second premolar, the first molar and the second molar, 4. The distance between the left and right second molar was greater with the Dental Prescale method than with the modified black silicon method (p< 0.05). These results suggested that the different measurement methods had different occlusal con-tact areas.