• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.43-49
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• 2004

Electric pulp test is a method to examine the vitality of dental pulp using physical and chemical stimulation. During the pulp test, the current stimulates intradental nerve, and it makes patients painful. In this paper, we measured each activating response EMG in anterior belly of digastric muscle, voice, and finger movement during the pulp test by increasing stimulus intensity gradually. We also measured excessive stimulus time from the activating responses (EMG, voice, and finger movement) to the end of the stimulation. We measured and analyzed excessive stimulus time for each stimulus detecting method. As a result, we developed automatic stimulus breaker using the human responses to stimulus during electric pulp test. We reduced the excessive stimulus time by disconnecting the pulp tester stimulus output rapidly in 10 ms after activating human response.