Interproximal tooth cleaning operated by a tactile robot. An in vitro analysis.

Abstract

Aim: New technologies such as tactile robots and artificial intelligence (AI) are finding their way into clinical practice in dentistry and could contribute to the improvement of oral health care in the future. The hypothesis of the present in vitro pilot study trial was that a collaborative tactile robot programmed by a dental student could remove interproximal artificial plaque as effectively as a human operator.

Materials and methods: Model teeth were fully covered with artificial plaque and set into phantom jaws. First, a robot was programmed by a dental student to perform interproximal cleaning with an interproximal brush. Second, the teeth were covered with artificial plaque again, and the dental student performed the interproximal cleaning manually. Both experiments were repeated five times. Residual plaque was measured with binary pictures. Surface coverage was reported, and the comparison of methods was performed with significance defined at α = 0.05.

Results: No statistically significant difference was found in the cleaning result between the robot and the human operator.

Conclusion: The results of the present in vitro pilot study indicate that a tactile robot with integrated AI programmed by a dental student can perform interproximal cleaning as effectively as a dental student.

Practical implications: In the future, the use of robot assistants to support oral hygiene, eg, in patients with reduced motor skills or impaired vision, should be fur ther investigated.