Dentronics: Tooth cleaning with a tactile, collaborative robot. An in vitro proof of concept.

Abstract

The aim was to compare the performance of a collaborative tactile robot programmed by a dental professional (DP) with the performance of a DP in removal of surrogate plaque In vitro. Six teeth of typodonts in articulated jaws were covered with surrogate plaque and cleaned by a DP with help of a manual toothbrush (DP/manual) and an electric toothbrush (DP/electric). The experiment was repeated with the help of a collaborative seven-axis tactile robot programmed by a DP handling a manual toothbrush (robot/manual) and an electric toothbrush (robot/electric). All experiment were repeated five times resulting in a total of N= 30 teeth in each group. Cleaning results were reported as the percentage of surface area with residual plaque. The cleaning results of the robot and the DP showed no significant differences. However, electric toothbrushing was significantly less effective compared to manual toothbrushing (p<0.05). This In vitro study indicates that current robot technology may perform removal of surrogate plaque as efficient as a DP. In future this may be helpful to release nursing staff from this time-demanding and possibly contagious task or support humans with reduced motor skills or impaired vision in performing daily oral hygiene.