Métodos para acompanhamento do desgaste dentário no bruxismo

Abstract

A relevant problem for Dentistry professionals and patients is the question of dental wear. The loss of structural material is irreversible and the damage can lead to pain. A follow up of the wear evolution is required to monitor a possible progression and to plan intervention. Multidisciplinary research gather information and professionals from different backgrounds can bring together different perspectives and solutions that contribute to the process of scientific research.The existing methods to monitor wear are clinical evaluation, questionnaires, impressions followed by comparison of the replicas and electronicmeasurements of muscular activity . These methods are mostly subjective, expensive or of difficult execution. The present work is based on a previous work (BASTOS, 2004) where a 3D profilometry was presented as a starting point to the study of dental wear. The studywas complemented by the preparation and application of a protocol to monitor a group of patients. It was developed as well a computer vision software to follow tooth wear through the time. The main objective of the study is the analysis of methods to define, identify, monitor and treat bruxism and the resulting dental wear. In 2004, BASTOS suggested theuse of replicas to follow dental material loss; in the present work the technique for preparing the replicas was perfected, a validation study was performed and a new material was tested and approved for this purpose. The protocol was applied to 17 volunteers during a period of 18 months in three evaluations. A program of Computer Vision was devellopedby students from post graduation of Computation Vision and Robotics where the input were pictures that were treated to reveals levels of dental grinding automaticly. This part of the study is in process but a initial analisys shows motivating results and leads to new perspectives to the problem of dental wear.