抄録
Purpose: This study gathered basic information on the ability of healthy dentate individuals to discriminate interdental thicknesses in order to diagnose patients without evident occlusal abnormalities who complain about bite discomfort.
Materials and Methods: Twenty healthy dentate adults participated in the study. The interdental thickness discrimination test was performed at the maxillary and mandibular central incisors with 2-, 5-, and 10-mm thick standard blocks. A test block with a different thickness from that of the corresponding standard block was tested after the application of the standard block. The subjects were then asked to answer whether the test block felt thicker or thinner than the standard block. The number of wrong answers was statistically analyzed. The measurement was repeated three times on different days.
Results: There was no statistical difference in the number of wrong answers among the measurements on three different days. There were statistically significant differences in the number of wrong answers between the 2- and 10-mm, and 5- and 10-mm thicknesses (p<0.05, ANOVA). Significantly more wrong answers were observed for the test blocks that were thicker than the standard block compared to those that were thinner (p<0.05, ANOVA). There were significant differences between females and males in the distribution of wrong answers for the thinner test blocks (2- and 5-mm thicknesses) (p<0.01, ridit analysis).
Conclusion: There was reproducibility of the interdental thickness discrimination test and a gender difference in the thickness discrimination ability in the healthy dentate adults who participated in this study.
