Current thermal cycling units fails to considering the natural drinking behavior, oral balancing temperature, simulation the natural time and drinking patterns. They cannot also simulate other oral conditions such as drinking colored, and chemicals such as tea, coffee, carbonated and noncarbonated, citrus juices as well as alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks and also saliva itself.
The main purpose of this study was to design and manufacture the first Drinking Simulator Unit (DSU) to reproduce the thermal, chemical and color cycling as well as the drinking behavior in lab conditions.
Method:
The invented system generally has two parts: the hardware and the software parts. The hardware consists of the mechanical and electronic parts including liquid storage tanks, (0ŸC - 10ŸC, 32ŸC - 42ŸC and 50ŸC - 60ŸC) immersion and showering or testing chambers, heating and cooling systems, electric panel, corrosion-resistant pumps, electric valves, water treatment system, PLC (Programmable Logical Controller) and HMI (Human Machine Interface).
The software part is responsible for controlling the heating and cooling systems, electric valves, the pumps, automatic filling systems of tanks as well as the sensors of the machine. In addition, this part communicates the data of the liquid conduits, tank temperature and other functions to HMI.
Result:
Different kinds of drinks mentioned above (acidic drinks) and also other chemical materials such as bleaching substances as well as detergents and antiseptics used for dentistry and industrial and medical purposes can be tested by DSU.
Conclusion:
The DSU has to be considered to carry out in-vitro researches on dental structure such as demineralization study as a close circuit unit and dental materials and techniques in different fields of dentistry. The invented system can greatly improve and validate the results of such researches.