Five students of Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) developed a portable dental unit that is easy to carry everywhere. The tool will facilitate dentists in providing dental care services.
This innovation called Duplex-10 was initiated by Qotru Al-Naday, a student of the Faculty of Dentistry (FKG). Developed together with four fellow students, Iqbal Maulana Haryadi (Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences), Listia Anjani Patria Bayu Matondang (Faculty of Engineering), and Sarahdita Nurani (FKG) under the guidance of Dr. Indra Bramanti, Sp.KGA, MSc.
“Duplex-10 is a lightweight and ergonomic dental examination chair. It can be carried and moved around outside the clinic,” said Qotru on Thursday (8/8) at UGM.
Qotru said the idea started concerning the need of dental health service when conducting examinations outside the clinic such as schools and other public spaces. Doctors need chairs that can be moved from the clinic to the location of the patient. Therefore, she and her colleagues developed a portable dental chair to assist dental health care workers when carrying out dental examinations outside the clinic.
This dental chair is different from similar products on the market. Most of the imported tools on the market have less mobility. One of them is the chair produced by Isfahan Dental University, Iran which is heavier because the raw material is of iron and the price is expensive.
“Duplex-10 is made of lightweight pipe iron with a total weight of around 7 kg,” she explained.
To make it easier to move around, this chair can be folded and carried with a special backpack. Another advantage is that its backrest can be moved to reach a position of 45 degrees, while the reclining point of a dental chair generally ranges from 70-90 degrees. This change is an advantage as doctors can examine patients more freely.
Duplex-10 is also equipped with support devices that can be installed and removed such as blood pressure and vital sign monitors and a lamp. It also has saliva ejectors, trays, dental air compressors and handpieces which are also moveable.
“The dental units are packed in boxes of 80 cm high, 50 cm wide, and 35 cm thick, weighing around 30 kg,” Listia added.
The bottom of the boxes is equipped with two cogs and a handle puller. In a relatively airy field, Listia mentioned, this dental unit can be moved to the patient’s location. When going through a steep terrain, the box can be lifted by two people as it has handles on both sides.
“The dental chair has been tested in Hikari Dental Clinic, Sleman and Salman Al Farizi Klebengan Kindergarten, Sleman,” she said.
This innovation is a new breakthrough that can help dental health care workers. The project was funded by the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education and qualified for the 2019 National Scientific Week competition at Universitas Udayana at the end of August.
Currently, they continue to make improvements in order to help more dental health care workers. They hoped that in the future the device can be mass produced and marketed at an affordable price.
Source: https://ugm.ac.id/id/berita/18228-mahasiswa-ugm-rintis-pengembangan-kursi-gigi-portabel
