Development of Mouth opening and closing training robot and clinical application for patients with disturbance mandibular

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We place special emphasis on the physical therapy for the disturbance of mandibular movement. Although mouth opening training is regarded as a part of physical therapy, the conventional device for this training does not induce physiological mandibular movement and the management of treatment depends to a great extent on the level of the therapist's experience. In order to provide the patients with quantitative and reproducible physical therapy, we have developed a mouth opening and closing training robot using the mechanism of the masticatory robot (Waseda Jaw, 1986) that can reproduce the human mandibular movement under computer control. We have already developed five types of mouth opening and closing training robots [Waseda Yamanashi (hereinafter referred to as WY)-1 (1995) to WY-5R, 1999] by improving their functions and have applied them to the clinical treatment. Using this newly developed a robot WY-5R we have attempted to establish inter-hospital collaboration to introduce the physical therapy into the treatment for the disturbance of mandibular movement. We also have attempted to apply this technique to home-based medical care services. A remote treatment project via the Integrated services digital network (ISDN) has been launched and a remote-control instruction system for mouth opening and closing training has this year been constructed between Yamanashi and Tokyo of 120km. We have had meet with success in results of clinical application of this new training system.