INTRODUCTION. Dental injury occurres in 0.06 - 0.13 % of general anesthesia procedures re- quiring endotracheal intubation, and it is still a reason of complaint against anesthetists. Maxil- lary central incisors are the most commonly teeth injured.1
In our center claims related to teeth damage after intubation ended with a total reimbursement of 13.000 Euros (2014-2015) and 5 patients (2014 to June 2016) were admitted for cares in Prosthodontics Implant dentistry dept. Dental School - Turin.
BUCX et al.2 used a strain gauge based sensor between handle and blade of the laryngoscope to measure forces applied on the maxillary incisors to show that during routine laryngoscopy great forces are exerted on the maxillary incisor teeth with no differences based on the operator experience.
OBJECTIVES.The aim of this study is to measure of the forces applied on teeth using a direct laryngoscope or a McGRATH® videolaringoscope. Many authors described how lower force on soft tissue could be applied using a VLS (GlideScope) instead of a standard laryngoscope (P=0.05).3, but no studies have ever been performed involving the use of a force sensor directly applied on teeth.
The aim of our study is to measure the forces applied on teeth after the application of a cus- tomized bite (2 mm dental bite) applied on the manikin. Anesthesiologists and anesthesia residents from “Città della Salute e della Scienza”,Turin will be asked to perform 3 intubations using the standard intubation system, and other 3 using McGRATH® videolaringoscope in order to test the intubation forces exerted