Interactive simulation of tooth cleaning with an interdental brush.

Proper cleaning of tooth interspaces is significant to sufficient caries prophylaxis. In this article we present a system for the simulation of this cleaning procedure using an interdental brush. Various application areas for the simulation are presented and the purpose of our work is explained. Simulation methods are shown, including data acquisition and preprocessing, an editor for the design of simulated interdental brushes and the mathematical methods on which the simulation of flexible parts of the brush is based. The presentation of the haptic user interface and a glance on the overall simulation system complete the chapter on methods. Afterwards we show first results of our work, and the article ends with a conclusion and a view on further work to be done in future.