MODELLING METHOD

Abstract

A method of demonstrating the impact of a treatment on a surface comprising the steps of: i optionally imaging at least one untreated surface ii applying at least one treatment to the surface(s)such that if step i) is not performed at least two different surfaces are treated with differing treatments, iii imaging the treated surface(s) to create an image; iv converting the imaging data into a format suitable to create a magnified image on a 3D printer; v producing a 3D model of each of the imaged surface(s).

Claims

1. A method of demonstrating the impact of a treatment on a surface comprising the steps of: i. optionally imaging at least one untreated surface, ii. applying at least one treatment to the surface(s), such that if step i) is not performed at least two different surfaces are treated with differing treatments, iii. imaging the treated surface(s) to create an image, iv. converting the imaging data into a format suitable to create a magnified image for a 3D printer, v. producing a magnified 3D model of the imaged surface(s).

2. A method according to claim 1 in which the image iii) is a topographical image.

3. A method according to claim 1 in which an untreated surface is compared with a treated surface.

4. A method according to claim 1 in which surfaces treated with two different treatment products are compared.

5. A method according to claim 1 in which the surface is part of a human body.

6. A method according to claim 1 in which the surface is tooth enamel.

7. A method according to claim 6 in which the treatment is an enamel regeneration treatment.

8. A method according to claim 7 in which the treatment demonstrated is formation of hydroxyapatite on a tooth surface.

9. A method according to claim 1 in which more than on treatment is applied to the enamel.

10. A method according to claim 9 in which different treatments are applied to different areas or samples of enamel.

11. A method according to claim 10 in which surfaces are brushed by toothpastes of differing abrasivity.

Description

EXAMPLES

[0023] The roots of human extracted incisors and premolars were removed by using a diamond abrasion wheel. The facial surface was then flattened using a high abrasivity disc (Tycet Ltd, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, UK) until it was flat enough to fit a block of enamel and dentine split approximately 50:50, of size 4×4 mm. The lingual part of the tooth was then cut with a Two Well Model 3242 Wire Cutter (Ebner, Le Locle, Switzerland) to leave a slice approximately 2.5 mm thick. The specimen was prepared planar parallel. The surface was then polished sequentially with 3 and 1 μm diamond suspensions (Kemet International Ltd, Maidstone, Kent, UK) and given a final polish with 0.3 μm Micropolish II (Buehler, Coventry, UK). Specimens were then sonicated for 5 mins, rinsed with Milli Q water (Millipore, UK) and then sonicated again for 5 mins to remove any smear layer formed during the polishing process.

[0024] The untreated specimens were imaged according to the method below.

[0025] The specimens were mounted in a modified Martindale brushing machine (Goodbrand-Jeffreys Ltd., Stockport, UK) fitted with flat-trimmed benefit toothbrushes. In this apparatus the brush heads describe Lissajous' figures, which combine linear and elliptical motions to ensure comprehensive coverage of the brushed specimen. The enamel specimen from the image was brushed with a slurry of a toothpaste of known abrasivity. The toothpaste was pre-mixed with water and 0.5% w/w sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (SCMC) solution in the ratio 1:1:1 paste:water:SCMC. Toothpaste slurry (10 ml) was added to the well of the brushing machine and the enamel-dentine specimens brushed for 2× ten minutes at 150 cycles/min at an applied load of 275 g. The image for the model was taken from the enamel side of the specimen.

Imaging Method

[0026] The topographic surface was converted into a format suitable for a 3D printer, by exporting in a digital file as spatial coordinates (X, Y, Z) of each point which describes the topographic (3D) surface using a sensoSCAN v5 with a Sensofar S neox profilometer.

[0027] The resulting digital file data was magnified by importing to Matlab as a matrix and using Matlab scripts to manipulate the matrix and change the resolution/scale. The matrix is then exported into a new ASCII file “.XYZ” as a list of all the X,Y,Z coordinates of each point.

[0028] The imaging data is converted into an image suitable for a 3D printer using 3D-CAD software and the 3D surface is applied onto a face of a parallelogram to obtain a 3D object. The resulting 3D image is exported to a digital file compatible with the 3D-printer device software by use of the “Rhino” software package, which can convert it into a 3d file and export as a .STL file.

[0029] The 3D image is printed to form a 3d object. This is achieved by using an EOS (Electro Optical Systems) EOSINT P380 Selective Laser Sintering printer and a 3D replica of the magnified surface produced.

[0030] Comparing the two 3D images demonstrated the effect of the toothpaste on the tooth enamel.