QLF as dental motvation

Prototyping

Dental health

Masters project

Research

QLF is the process of natural luminescence found in plaque when excited by light of a certain wavelength (UV-blue). I produced and iterated prototypes with QLF capabilities and tested these on users. One of the prototypes was then chosen and used for my study.

Though there was no significance in my study, I propose and research a link between clinical, dental feedback, to dental motivation. I also examine the future potential of QLF technology, and discuss it’s impact on the field of dental health.

my dissertation and project for my design engineering masters, I investigated the effects of QLF (quantitative light fluorescence) on dental motivation and produced a prototype to help people easily tackle plaque at home.

Plaque, is one of the most common symptoms for any serious dental issues. Currently, there are few ways to identify plaque at home (eg. teeth staining), and my project focused on how we could use light, of certain frequency (UV-blue) to help illuminate plaque, and help people brush more accurately at home.

I also produced a python GUI to help record and give live feedback to users, regarding where their plaque is, and how much they have on their teeth before brushing.

Using plaque reduction as my main indicator for dental motivation, my study found no significance relating my QLF prototype and its ability to motivate people (reduce plaque between pre-brushing plaque content and post-brushing plaque content).

I also propose a future dental health system which moves the reactive nature of dental health, into a proactive response system.

continue exploring!