Comparison of bite force with dental prescale and unilateral bite force recorder in healthy subjects

Kwon, Ho Keun; Yoo, Ja Hea; Kwon, Young Sook; Kim, Baek Il

Abstract

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: The previous unilateral bite force recorder has several limitations for taking long time for measuring and causing discomfort to subjects. Because of these reasons, it could not use widely for epidemiological researches. However, "Dental Prescale System" which is new equipment for measuring bite force, is more convenient for measuring bite force than previous unilateral recorder. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare a new technique(Dental Prescale System) using pressure sensitive foils for recording of maximal jaw closing force with conventional measurement using unilateral bite force recorder. MATERIAL AND METHOD: This studies included 22 healthy dental students in college of dentistry, Yonsei university in Rep. of Korea. Mean age was 23.9 years. All subjects had continuous dental arches and no significant malocclusion or signs from the teeth and craniomandibular system. The Dental Prescale System (Fuji Film, Tokyo, Japan) consists of a horseshoe-shaped pressure sensitive sheet (50H, R type) and a computerized scanning system.(FPD705) We also used unilateral bite force recorder(Denbotics Co. Seoul, Rep.Korea) for comparing with Dental Prescale.
RESULTS
AND CONCLUSION: The total bite force recorded with Dental Prescale System (1423 N) was systematically higher than that recorded by unilateral bite force recorder.(256 N) However, the maximum bite force values measured in the two ways were significantly correlated (r=0.46, p<0.05). The Dental Prescale bite force calculated for first molar (208 N) was lower than that recorded by unilateral bite force recorder.(256 N) The two values were also very significantly correlated .(r=0.66. p<0.001) There were significantly different in bite force between two measurement methods. The reasons were first, unilateral bite force recorder measured only the bite force of a part of teeth, and Dental Prescale measured the total teeth force. Second, in measurement, a difference in muscle contraction appeared by an extent of mouth-opening. Third, unilateral bite force recorder has the reducing effect of the bite force by protective tape. Fourth, Dental Prescale has limitations during the computer scanning procedure. Therefore, Dental Prescale System is considered to be a very promising alternative to be conventional bite force recording methods.