Innovative Design of Dental Mouth Props: Exploring Functional Features and Material Enhancements for Improved Performance

Dentists play a crucial role in maintaining patients’ oral health. However, prolonged dental procedures often cause discomfort, such as jaw muscle fatigue and anxiety. Dental mouth props are used to keep the mouth open during procedures, but they often lead to complaints regarding comfort, size incompatibility, and material elasticity. Therefore, product design improvements are necessary to enhance patient comfort and usage efficiency. This study aims to improve the design of Dental Mouth Prop using Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Value Engineering (VE) methods. The first phase of QFD maps the technical traits, including mechanical strength, anatomical fit, and material elasticity, that shape performance. The second phase highlights the parts that required refinement, such as the central support and bite surface. VE then examines each component’s function and cost to guide a more efficient and effective design. Through the VE process, the central support was replaced from silicone rubber (2–10 MPa flexural strength) to PMMA (92.44 MPa), and the bite surface from silicone rubber (1–10 MPa tensile strength, 1–10 MJ/m3 toughness) to thermoplastic elastomer (10–60 MPa, 20–60 MJ/m3). Replacing the material results in a 20.6% material cost reduction, while the simulation results also show improved load distribution and increased structural stability, addressing key discomfort factors such as jaw fatigue and bite-surface pressure. This study demonstrates that the application of QFD and VE can yield a more efficient product, reduce costs, and improve product quality while maintaining user needs and comfort.

Dental mouth prop; Product design; Quality function deployment; Value engineering

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