Validation of Hardness Measurement of Dental Hard and Soft Tissue for Dental Clinic Using a Tactile Sensor : In vitro and in vivo Study

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A small and a lightweight sensor of tactile sensation was investigated. After several revisions a smaller and lighter sensor was successfully developed. It has been applied to human soft tissue to evaluate stiffness in a quantitative and noninvasive manner.We report a method for measuring the hardness of dental hard tissue using a tactile sensor. The tip of the sensor was a hemisphere measuring 0.5 mm in diameter and 35 mm in length. The hardness of sound enamel, artificial enamel lesions, sound and carious dentin was measured with the tactile sensor and by microhardness test. The tactile sensor was able to detect differences in hardness of artificial enamel lesions with loads ranging from 30 g to 70 g in a quantitative manner. The hardness measured with the tactile sensor was positively associated with that measured by the microhardness test. The tactile sensor was able to determine all the levels of hardness of the dental hard tissue.On the other hand, no correlation between the hardness of rubber impression materials measured with the tactile sensor and rubber-hardness test was observed.