Authors : Seyed Amir Razavi Satvati, Masoud Parirokh, Mohammad Shooriabi, Fatemeh Rezaei, Hamid Reza Mozaffari and Roohollah Sharifi
Abstract: Acute inflammation of periradicular tissues such as acute apicalabscess, acute periradicular periodontitis, etc. is detected by reduction of the mechanical pain threshold which is defined as allodynia. It is essential to design a standard method to assess the mechanical allodynia in patients with dental pain. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate a device converting the bite force to a recordable figure based on newton in order to measure mechanical allodynia. In this cross-sectional study which was investigated in 40 volunteered dental students, by one researcher, mechanical allodynia device was used. In the first phase, the device was placed between the mesiopalatal cusp of maxillary first molar and mandibular first molar. This process was followed for the contra lateral teeth. This process was performed four times with a frequency of one minute for each side. The maximum forces were recorded and these measurements were performed againin 2 and 4 weeks again (totally 960 measurements). Data were analyzed by SPSS Software (version 21).The maximum force in the right and left sides in different testing times were 290.97 and 278.84 N, respectively, which is statistically significant (p<0.0001). The mean of forces for women in the right and left sides were 22.6 N and 29.3 N lower than those of the men, respectively, which was statistically significant in both sides (p<0.0001). The mean of forces in the three periods obtained through the analysis of linear effect of age showed that 0.33 and 2 N less forces were exerted for each year increase in age in the right and left sides, respectively. This change, however was statistically significant in the left side (p<0.04). The interclass correlation coefficient (rho) in the right side was 0.6 (p<0.0001) and in the left side was 0.56 (p<0.0001). This device has the potential to be used for the repeatable measurement of bite force in every individual at different periods.
Seyed Amir Razavi Satvati, Masoud Parirokh, Mohammad Shooriabi, Fatemeh Rezaei, Hamid Reza Mozaffari and Roohollah Sharifi, 2016. Fabrication and Evaluation of a Diagnostic Device for the Measurement of Mechanical Allodynia. Research Journal of Medical Sciences, 10: 545-550.