Masking effect of sounds during treatment on dental drill sound

A dental drill has influence on acoustic environment in a dental clinic. Sounds of dental drills are temporary varying and have several prominent frequency components in a wide frequency range. Many patients experienced unpleasant feeling with the sound of a dental drill. In Japan, the use of dental aerosol suction devices, of which loudness level are high, during dental treatment has increased dramatically compared with their use before the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, the sounds emitted by dental drills and sound related to dental aerosol suction devices were prepared and psychoacoustic evaluation of the stimuli combined the both noise was conducted. The results may help to improve the discomfort feeling in the dental sound environment.