Purpose: To measure the range of forces exerted clinically in order to determine whether research in this area uses forces that are similar to those generally seen in a clinical setting.
Methods: A transducer was manufactured consisting of a force measurement sleeve positioned over the handle of a conventional explorer. The sleeve housed 4 strain gauges oriented to detect forces in a vertical and lateral direction. Five experienced dentists performed a full-mouth caries exam on three fully dentate caries-free subjects with the force-detecting probe.
Results: The overall average force was 340 +/- 6 (SEM) g with a standard deviation of 218 g and a range of 14-1,006 g. The average number of contacts per tooth was 6.2 +/- 0.2 (SEM) with a standard deviation of 2.7.
Conclusions: The data from this study show that the forces used in previous studies were sometimes greater than the average force, but were still within the observed range of forces.
Copyright 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel