Abstract
The sound produced by a dental air turbine handpiece (dental drill) can markedly influence the sound environment in a dental clinic. Indeed, many patients report that the sound of a dental drill elicits an unpleasant feeling. Although several manufacturers have attempted to reduce the sound pressure levels produced by dental drills during idling based on ISO 14457, the sound emitted by such drills under active drilling conditions may negatively influence the dental clinic sound environment. The physical metrics related to the unpleasant impressions associated with dental drill sounds have not been determined. In the present study, psychological measurements of dental drill sounds were conducted with the aim of facilitating improvement of the sound environment at dental clinics. Specifically, we examined the impressions elicited by the sounds of 12 types of dental drills in idling and drilling conditions using a semantic differential. The analysis revealed that the impressions of dental drill sounds varied considerably between idling and drilling conditions and among the examined drills. This finding suggests that measuring the sound of a dental drill in idling conditions alone may be insufficient for evaluating the effects of the sound. We related the results of the psychological evaluations to those of measurements of the physical metrics of equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure levels (LAeq) and sharpness. Factor analysis indicated that impressions of the dental drill sounds consisted of two factors: “metallic and unpleasant” and “powerful”. LAeq had a strong relationship with “powerful impression”, calculated sharpness was positively related to “metallic impression”, and “unpleasant impression” was predicted by the combination of both LAeq and calculated sharpness. The present analyses indicate that, in addition to a reduction in sound pressure level, refining the frequency components of dental drill sounds is important for creating a comfortable sound environment in dental clinics.
Highlights
The sound that is most often associated with dental treatment is that of a dental air turbine handpiece
Among the examined physical metrics, LAeq values were positively correlated with the “powerful impression”; calculated sharpness was related to the adjective scale values of the “metallic impression”; and both LAeq and sharpness predicted the “unpleasant impression” of the sound of dental drills
We found that Comfort Index (CI), which is composed of LAeq and sharpness, appears to be a suitable index for evaluating the unpleasant feeling elicited by dental drills
Summary
The sound that is most often associated with dental treatment is that of a dental air turbine handpiece (dental drill). Evaluations of Dental Drill Sounds the sound environment in a dental clinic. A questionnaire that surveyed patients regarding their impression of dental situations found that approximately half of the respondents experienced an unpleasant feeling when they heard drilling sounds related to dental treatment [1]. Several reports have measured the noise level at dental clinics and have found that the noise levels to which dentists are exposed is below the limit for risk of hearing damage [3, 4]. The A-weighted sound pressure level generated by dental drills has been standardized so that it is not expected to exceed 80 dB during idling operation (ISO 14457 [5], JIS T 5906 [6]), further efforts to create a comfortable sound environment in dental care settings are warranted
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