Development of the Second Prototype of an Oral Care Simulator

Abstract

Oral care is crucial to preventing diseases and maintaining the quality of life of elderly people. To create an effective training environment for nursing students, we developed a second prototype of an oral care simulator that can guide and record oral care practices. The simulator has three components: (1) a dentition model with pressure sensors, (2) a microcomputer to record signals, and (3) software for visualization. We proposed a novel mechanism to detect brushing behavior using pressure sensors and developed software to visualize the records of oral care practice. We calibrated the system to estimate the weights applied in the dentition model using a brush and verified that the calibration increased the accuracy of the estimation.