Development of a dental measuring instrument
(2017) MMK820 20162Innovation
- Abstract
- This report aims to communicate the process and result of the master’s thesis project that was accomplished at TePe Munhygienprodukter AB, with the title Development of a dental measuring instrument. The project had a timeframe of 18 weeks and consisted to a large extent of generating a foundation for developing a product that allows for simple measuring of interdental spaces.
TePe develops dental hygiene products for consumers in close collaboration with the odontological profession. Their main markets are the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg and Greece.
TePe’s biggest product is the interdental brush. It is a brush used for cleaning between the teeth. In Sweden, it is mostly used after... (More) - This report aims to communicate the process and result of the master’s thesis project that was accomplished at TePe Munhygienprodukter AB, with the title Development of a dental measuring instrument. The project had a timeframe of 18 weeks and consisted to a large extent of generating a foundation for developing a product that allows for simple measuring of interdental spaces.
TePe develops dental hygiene products for consumers in close collaboration with the odontological profession. Their main markets are the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg and Greece.
TePe’s biggest product is the interdental brush. It is a brush used for cleaning between the teeth. In Sweden, it is mostly used after getting a recommendation from a dentist or a dental hygienist. That is also the case in most other markets, however the extent to which consumers get instructions and recommendations largely varies.
There are products on the market today that aims to make it easier to measure interdental spaces, and thereby determine the suitable size of interdental brush. They are however not that many and not used to any large extent. In Sweden and in most other markets, the sizing is done by testing different sizes of the interdental brush.
The main part of the project, both in advance and in execution, consisted of investigating if there was an expressed need for this type of product, and in that case, in which market and for which user.
To get some insight on the subject and a clearer overview of the issue, the project’s author completed some extensive literature studies, on oral hygiene in general and the issue regarding size of interdental brush in particular.
There was also a series of interviews completed, with experts on different areas within TePe. 14 people with knowledge of dental care, sales, marketing and design were interviewed throughout a period of three weeks. Both people working in Sweden and in other European countries.
Based on the pre-study, benchmarking and interviews it was decided that the project would focus on developing a product primarily directed towards the regular user. After this, several different concepts were developed. Some of them were excluded quickly, while others followed through longer in development. Based on the earlier interviews and the established target area, there were several more requirements and requests that surfaced during the development phase. This narrowed the possible development directions for the product further.
After the final concept was chosen the work continued with further concretizing the actual potential of the concept. First through prototyping and after that through investigation and evaluation of crucial parameters. Test molds were created to get an understanding of the function of the final product. A very successful action, both in terms of the produced units and their functionality.
The project was concluded with a prediction of a yearly production of 10 million units by the Global Sales Director of TePe.
Keywords: Interdental brush, measuring, oral hygiene, product development. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8928752
- author
- Jansson, Adam LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MMK820 20162
- year
- 2017
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- language
- English
- id
- 8928752
- date added to LUP
- 2017-11-23 13:54:45
- date last changed
- 2017-11-23 13:54:45
@misc{8928752,
abstract = {{This report aims to communicate the process and result of the master’s thesis project that was accomplished at TePe Munhygienprodukter AB, with the title Development of a dental measuring instrument. The project had a timeframe of 18 weeks and consisted to a large extent of generating a foundation for developing a product that allows for simple measuring of interdental spaces.
TePe develops dental hygiene products for consumers in close collaboration with the odontological profession. Their main markets are the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg and Greece.
TePe’s biggest product is the interdental brush. It is a brush used for cleaning between the teeth. In Sweden, it is mostly used after getting a recommendation from a dentist or a dental hygienist. That is also the case in most other markets, however the extent to which consumers get instructions and recommendations largely varies.
There are products on the market today that aims to make it easier to measure interdental spaces, and thereby determine the suitable size of interdental brush. They are however not that many and not used to any large extent. In Sweden and in most other markets, the sizing is done by testing different sizes of the interdental brush.
The main part of the project, both in advance and in execution, consisted of investigating if there was an expressed need for this type of product, and in that case, in which market and for which user.
To get some insight on the subject and a clearer overview of the issue, the project’s author completed some extensive literature studies, on oral hygiene in general and the issue regarding size of interdental brush in particular.
There was also a series of interviews completed, with experts on different areas within TePe. 14 people with knowledge of dental care, sales, marketing and design were interviewed throughout a period of three weeks. Both people working in Sweden and in other European countries.
Based on the pre-study, benchmarking and interviews it was decided that the project would focus on developing a product primarily directed towards the regular user. After this, several different concepts were developed. Some of them were excluded quickly, while others followed through longer in development. Based on the earlier interviews and the established target area, there were several more requirements and requests that surfaced during the development phase. This narrowed the possible development directions for the product further.
After the final concept was chosen the work continued with further concretizing the actual potential of the concept. First through prototyping and after that through investigation and evaluation of crucial parameters. Test molds were created to get an understanding of the function of the final product. A very successful action, both in terms of the produced units and their functionality.
The project was concluded with a prediction of a yearly production of 10 million units by the Global Sales Director of TePe.
Keywords: Interdental brush, measuring, oral hygiene, product development.}},
author = {{Jansson, Adam}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Development of a dental measuring instrument}},
year = {{2017}},
}