Automatic diagnosis system of tooth mobility for clinical use.

The examination of tooth mobility gives valuable clinical findings on pathological change in the periodontium. An automatic diagnosis system has been developed for the quantitative evaluation of tooth mobility. Tooth mobility was determined from the vibration characteristics of the periodontium and expressed in terms of such objective biomechanical parameters as stiffness and two damping coefficients. These were displayed on a monitor CRT as a triangular figure. This system is composed of a probe, which comprises a vibrator and acceleration transducers, and a data analysis unit using a personal computer. A dentist can measure the tooth mobility without assistance with a foot-switch to trigger the computer operation. The reliability and the operational facility of the system are considered to be sufficient that it may be used in daily clinical practice. Data were collected from healthy and pathological teeth. The tooth mobility of the pathological tooth and the time course of the change in the mechanical parameters after implantation of the tooth were measured by this system. The advantages of this system compared with previous one, which was also developed by the authors, are discussed.