• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.337-344
• /
• 2005

A tactile sensor employs a piezoelectric element to detect contact frequency shifts and thereby measure the stiffness or softness of material such as tissue, which allows the sensor to be used in many fields of research for urology, cardiology, gynecology, sports medicine and caner detection and especially for cosmetics and skin care. In this study, reliability of the tactile sensor system was investigated with its manual application to the muscles susceptible to temporomandibular disorders. Stiffness and elasticity of anterior temporalis, masseter and trapezius muscles were calibrated bilaterally from 5 healthy men with an average of 24.5$\pm$0.94 years. The tactile sensor used in this study had a computer-controlled and motor-driven sensor unit which automatically pressed down on the skin surface over the muscles being measured and retracted, thereby providing the hysteresis curve. The slope of the tangent of the hysteresis curve (${\Delta}f/{\Delta}x$) is defined as stiffness of the muscle being measured and the distance between the two parts of the curve as its elasticity. To determine inter-examiner reliability, all the measurements were performed by the two examiners A and B, respectively and the same examination were repeated with an interval of 2 days for intra-examiner reliability. The results from this study demonstrated high reliability in measuring stiffness and elasticity of anterior temporalis, masseter and upper trapezius muscles using a tactile sensor system. It is suggested that the tactile sensor system can be a highly reproducible and effective instrument for quantitative evaluation of the muscle in head and neck region.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
• /
• v.47 no.1
• /
• pp.1-11
• /
• 2009

Statement of problem: There are two methods of color choice for the esthetic restoration. One is visual shade matching which draws a comparison between shade guide and teeth in dentist's own eye and the other is using a digital shade analysis system recently introduced. Although the visual shade matching has a lot of problems, decision of color by this visual shade matching and the ways of expression for the decided color are still applicable to clinical dentistry. Purpose: This study is designed to investigate shade guides used in the dental clinics and laboratories have the same value using ShadeEye-$NCC^{(R)}$ dental chroma meter (Shofu Inc., Kyoto, Japan) using shade guide are evaluated. Material and methods: At the first experiment, eight Vita Lumin Vacuum shade guides (Vident Inc., California, USA) were collected from the dental clinics. A1 and B1 shade tabs are chosen and the colors are analyzed five times each in both tooth and porcelain modes by digital shade analysis system, ShadeEye-$NCC^{(R)}$. In the second experiment, twelve Vita shade guides using practically in the dental clinics and laboratories were collected and also A1 and B1 shade tabs are chosen and the colors of A1 and B1 are analyzed one time each in both tooth and porcelain modes by ShadeEye-$NCC^{(R)}$. Results and conclusion: There were significant differences among eight shade guides in terms of shade (chroma), value and hue in both of A1 and B1 (P<.05). Shade guides using in present both dental clinics and laboratories did not show significant differences, except A1 in the porcelain mode, it showed significant differences (P<.05) in the shade even though the shade tab has the same name.