Interactive Haptic Simulation of Dental Plaque Removal

This paper discusses the development of an interactive training system which performs haptic simulation for practicing dental plaque removal. Three object types are simulated, namely teeth, plaque, and gums. All of them can be interacted with through a single-point-of-contact haptic device. A tooth is modeled as a rigid-body object, while gums are modeled as a deformable object. A method has been developed for dental plaque simulation, based on a physically-based modeling of fragile material. Plaque is modeled as a set of point-masses connected by bonds which represent distance-preserving linear constraints. Some bonds are used to connect pieces of plaque together, while others are used to bind the plaque with teeth. The forces exerted on these bonds during impact are computed based on a spring-mass model of plaque object. The resulting force is compared with each bond strength to determine when and where plaque fragmentation occurs