歯科インプラント動揺測定装置の開発

Evaluation of dental implantation is very important because it gives useful information for both planning the dental treatment and evaluating of prognosis. This study aimed at improving our previously developed Tooth Mobility (TM) tester and developing a dental implant movement (IM) checker. The measuring probe included a bimorph transducer of two piezoelectric elements. It was actuated by single frequency and detected tooth acceleration. The acceleration signal was processed and the IM score was calculated in PC. Two artificial implant models in which IMZ implant was buried with different elasticity of surrounding (molteno(@)) were used to examine the performance of the IM checker. The IM scores obtained in the models were 29 and 58. The measurement time was below 15 seconds. The average of measurement variation of one operator was below 6% and the average variation among five operators was below also 6%. The IM checker reduced a measurement variation by 51% and a measuring time by 61% compared with those of the TM tester in natural teeth. The newly developed IM checker had sufficient measuring reliability and we could objectively estimate the implant movement in dental clinics.