JP6069792B2 - Dental probe and gingival pressure measuring device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a dental probe and a gingival pressure measuring device.

  In periodontal disease, when gingivitis progresses and inflammation spreads to the deep part of the gingiva, the gingival tissue is destroyed, and the gingival crevice between the gingiva and the tooth is enlarged to form a groove called a periodontal pocket. In the treatment of this periodontal disease, it is common to measure the depth of the periodontal pocket with an inspection instrument called a probe. Depending on the depth of the periodontal pocket, normal, gingivitis, periodontal disease, etc. To be judged. In order to know the depth of the periodontal pocket, a probe having a probe portion made of a hard metal such as stainless steel bent in a U-shape is conventionally used at the tip of a grip portion made of a rod-shaped metal fitting. ing.

  In this probe, the probe part is graduated at regular intervals from its tip, and when the probe part is inserted into the periodontal pocket, the scale is read to measure the periodontal pocket depth. Can be done. And when inserting a probe part in a periodontal pocket, you have to insert a probe part in a periodontal pocket so that it may become a fixed contact pressure. For this reason, after practicing the contact pressure to be constant, the surgeon must repeatedly measure the periodontal pocket depth in the simulated patient and train so that it does not differ from the expert's reading. It was.

  As described above, in order to measure the depth of the periodontal pocket using the probe, it is necessary to learn a technique for making the contact pressure constant with good reproducibility and accuracy over time. However, in the field of medical and health activities, the subject to be measured is not fixed, so the displacement for applying a constant pressure must be adjusted while visually checking. Concentrating on keeping the patient constant, there was a problem that the patient's general condition could not be seen and the discovery of the anomaly was delayed.

  For this reason, for example, Patent Document 1 discloses a measuring device that can measure the depth of a periodontal pocket in a non-contact manner by detecting the amount of reflected light when projected onto the bottom surface of the periodontal pocket. . However, since the reflection of light is greatly influenced by the environment in the periodontal pocket, it is difficult to always accurately measure the depth of the periodontal pocket.

  In peri-implantitis, periodontal pocket depth (PPD) measurement by probing as described above is most used as clinical peri-implant mucosal tissue examination. However, the depth of the mucosal groove around the implant is often affected by the depth and angle of implantation of the implant body and the shape of the mucous membrane at the site of implantation. It can be difficult. For this reason, in order to measure the softness of the gingiva, a method of measuring the force required to insert the tip of the probe portion into the gingival crevice to a predetermined depth can be considered. It is impossible to know the correct pressure.

Japanese Patent No. 3019857

  The present invention has been made in view of these circumstances, and it is possible to know the contact pressure when the tip portion of the probe portion is inserted into the gingival sulcus or periodontal pocket, and the gingival sulcus at a predetermined contact pressure. Another object of the present invention is to provide a dental probe that can read the depth of a tooth pocket and a periodontal pocket, and a gingival pressure measuring device using the dental probe.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention of claim 1 is a dental probe having a scale at the tip of the probe portion, wherein a flat portion is provided at the base of the probe portion, and a strain gauge is provided on the flat portion. Further, the tip portion of the probe portion is provided so as to be rotatable with a pin relative to the base portion. The invention according to claim 2 is the dental probe according to claim 1, wherein the flat surface portion is parallel to the longitudinal direction of the base portion of the probe portion, and the surface formed by the base portion and the tip portion. It is characterized by a vertical surface. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the dental probe of the first or second aspect, the planar portion is two substantially parallel surfaces provided at a base portion of the probe portion.

A fourth aspect of the present invention is a gingival pressure measuring device including the dental probe according to any one of the first to third aspects, to which an output signal from the strain gauge is input, wherein the output signal from the strain gauge is It has the control part which converts a magnitude | size into a pressure value, It is characterized by the above-mentioned. The invention according to claim 5 is the gingival pressure measuring device according to claim 4 , further comprising a notifying unit for notifying that the pressure value has reached a predetermined value or more. According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the gingival pressure measuring apparatus according to the fifth aspect , the notification section is an audio output section or a display section.

  According to the present invention, the contact pressure of the tip of the probe portion inserted into the gingival groove or periodontal pocket can be measured by the strain gauge provided at the base of the probe portion of the dental probe. When the probe portion is inserted into the periodontal pocket, the depth of the gingival sulcus and periodontal pocket at a predetermined contact pressure can be read. Moreover, it becomes possible to measure the gingival pressure when the tip part of the probe part is inserted into the gingival groove at a predetermined depth.

It is a figure which shows an example of the gingival pressure measuring apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the probe part of the dental probe which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of a strain gauge. It is a figure which shows an example of the block diagram of the gingival pressure measuring apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the usage example of the dental probe shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the other example of the probe part of the dental probe which concerns on this invention.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments according to a dental probe and a gingival pressure measuring apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the configurations denoted by the same reference numerals in different drawings are the same, and the description thereof may be omitted.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a periodontal pocket measuring apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a probe portion of a dental probe according to the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, the gingival pressure measuring apparatus 1 includes an apparatus main body 10, a dental probe 20, and a cable 30 that connects the apparatus main body 10 and the dental probe 20. As will be described later, the apparatus main body unit 10 includes a display unit 11 including a liquid crystal panel for displaying or informing a measurement result, and an operation unit 12 including operation buttons. Moreover, you may make it use the display part 11 and the operation part 12 together by using a display with a touch panel for a display part.

  The dental probe 20 has a grasping portion 21 for an operator to hold, and a probe portion 24 including a base portion 22 and a distal end portion 23. The base portion 22 of the probe portion is provided with substantially parallel plane portions 25 and 25 'serving as narrow portions, and strain gauges 41 and 42 are provided on the plane portions 25 and 25', respectively. A visible scale 26 is provided at the tip 23 of the probe 24. Note that only one of the plane portions 25 and 25 ′ may be formed on the base portion 22, and a strain gauge may be provided on this one surface.

  The plane portions 25 and 25 ′ are preferably parallel to the longitudinal direction of the base portion 22 of the probe portion 24 and perpendicular to the surface formed by the base portion 22 and the distal end portion 23. As a result, the displacement amount of the strain gauges 41 and 42 due to the stress acting on the base portion 22 when the distal end portion 24 is inserted into the periodontal groove can be increased, and the sensitivity to the stress can be improved. it can.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a strain gauge. The strain gauges 41 and 42 are formed by forming a corrugated metal foil 46 on a thin resin electrical insulating film 45 by photoetching or the like, and further connecting leads 43 and 44 as lead lines. When a tensile force is applied to the strain gauges 41 and 42 in the longitudinal direction from the outside, the resistance value of the metal foil 46 is increased by stretching, and when the compressive force is applied, the resistance value is decreased by contracting. Therefore, the load (contact pressure) applied to the probe portion 24 can be detected by measuring the change in the resistance value of the strain gauges 41 and 42. The leads 43 and 44 are connected to the apparatus main body 10 through the cable 30.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a block diagram of the gingival pressure measuring apparatus according to the present invention. The gingival pressure measuring apparatus 1 includes a bridge circuit 51, a power supply unit 52, an applied voltage control unit 53, an amplifier 54, a control unit 55, a display unit 11, an operation unit 12, and a speaker 13 as an audio output unit. The bridge circuit 51 has strain gauges R1 and R3 and constant resistances R2 and R4 having temperature coefficients equal to those of the strain gauges R1 and R3. Here, the strain gauges R1 and R3 correspond to the strain gauges 41 and 42, respectively, and are connected so as to be located on opposite sides of the bridge. Further, the ratio of the resistance values of R1 and R4 can be made equal to the ratio of the resistance values of R2 and R3.

  In a state where a constant voltage is applied to the bridge circuit 51 from the applied voltage control unit, when stress is applied to the probe unit 24, the strain gauges 41 and 42 are deformed. For example, a tensile force is applied to the strain gauge 41, When a compressive force is applied to the strain gauge 42, a potential difference is generated at an intermediate point of the bridge circuit 51. This potential difference signal is output to the control unit 55 via the amplifier 54. The control unit 55 includes an A / D conversion circuit 56, a calculation unit 57, and a storage unit 58. The calculation unit 57 and the storage unit 58 can be configured by a microcomputer including a CPU, a ROM, and a RAM.

  The potential difference signal from the amplifier 54 is an analog signal, which is converted into a digital signal by the A / D conversion circuit 56 and output to the arithmetic unit 57. The computing unit 57 converts the digital signal of the acquired voltage into a contact pressure value from the relationship between the magnitude of the potential difference signal stored in advance in the storage unit 58 and the contact pressure. And the control part 55 displays the contact pressure which the calculating part 57 calculated | required on the display part 11. FIG.

  Further, the control unit 55, when the magnitude of the potential difference signal from the bridge circuit 51 becomes larger than the potential difference corresponding to the predetermined contact pressure, that is, when the contact pressure becomes larger than the predetermined magnitude, For example, the operator is notified by sounding the speaker 13. The predetermined contact pressure may be stored in the storage unit 58 in advance, or a predetermined value may be set by the operator operating the operation unit 12.

  From the above, when measuring the depth of the gingival sulcus and periodontal pocket, the operator concentrates his / her line of sight on the distal end portion 23 of the probe portion 24 of the dental probe and inserts the probe portion 24 into the gingival portion. Can continue. Since a notification sound is generated when the predetermined contact pressure is reached, the depth when the probe portion is inserted with a constant contact pressure can always be measured by reading the value of the scale 26 at that time. .

  Further, when measuring the force required to insert the tip 23 of the probe 24 into the gingival groove at a predetermined depth, the tip 23 of the probe 24 is placed at a predetermined position of the gingival groove of the tooth to be inspected. Is inserted to a predetermined scale, and the value of the contact pressure at that time may be stored in the storage unit 58 as needed. As a switch for storing, a foot switch (not shown) may be used in addition to being provided in the grasping portion 21 of the dental probe.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an example of use of the dental probe shown in FIG. 2, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another example of the probe portion of the dental probe according to the present invention. As described above, the depth of the gingival sulcus is usually read from the scale 26 by inserting the tip 23 of the probe part 24 shown in FIG. 2 along the gingival sulcus to a depth that provides a predetermined contact pressure. Can do. However, for example, when measuring the gingival sulcus of a molar protruding outward from the gingiva, as shown in FIG. 5, when inserting the tip 23 into the gingival sulcus with the gripping part 21 substantially horizontal, The tip portion 23 of the needle portion may hit the portion A where the teeth are warped, and the teeth T may be pushed in the P direction. At this time, in addition to the contact pressure, a force in the direction opposite to the P direction acts on the probe portion, so that an accurate contact pressure cannot be measured.

Therefore, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, as distal portion 23 of the probe portion 24 is rotatable relative to the base 2 2, and a tip portion 23 and the base 2 2 separate entities, pins both 27. Thus, tip 23 of the probe portion 24 is rotatable relative to the base 2 2, both the angle of the variable. Thereby, even when the grip portion 21 is substantially horizontal, the tip portion 23 can be smoothly inserted along the gingival sulcus, and the accuracy of gingival pressure measurement can be improved.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Gingival pressure assumption apparatus, 10 ... Apparatus main body, 11 ... Display part, 12 ... Operation part, 13 ... Speaker, 20 ... Dental probe, 21 ... Gripping part, 22 ... Base part, 23 ... Tip part, 24 ... Probe Part, 25, 25 '... plane part, 26 ... scale, 27 ... pin, 30 ... cable, 41, 42 ... strain gauge, 43, 44 ... lead, 45 ... electrical insulation film, 46 ... metal foil, 51 ... bridge circuit , 52 ... power supply unit, 53 ... applied voltage control unit, 54 ... amplifier, 55 ... control unit, 56 ... A / D conversion circuit, 57 ... calculation unit, 58 ... storage unit.

Claims (6)

A dental probe having a scale at the tip of the probe portion, provided with a flat portion at the base of the probe portion, provided with a strain gauge on the flat portion,
A dental probe characterized in that the tip of the probe section is provided so as to be rotatable with a pin relative to the base.   The dental plane according to claim 1, wherein the planar portion is a surface parallel to a longitudinal direction of the base portion of the probe portion and perpendicular to a surface formed by the base portion and the distal end portion. probe.   The dental probe according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the planar portion is two substantially parallel surfaces provided at a base portion of the probe portion.   A gingival pressure measuring device comprising the dental probe according to any one of claims 1 to 3 and receiving an output signal from the strain gauge, wherein the magnitude of the output signal from the strain gauge is a pressure value. A gingival pressure measuring device having a control unit for converting into a gingiva.   The gingival pressure measurement apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a notification unit that notifies that the pressure value is equal to or greater than a predetermined value.   The gingival pressure measurement apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the notification unit is an audio output unit or a display unit.

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