Abstract
The growing popularity of contact sports drives the requirement for better design of protective equipment, such as mouthguards. Smart mouthguards with embedded electronics provide a multitude of new ways to provide increased safety and protection to users. Characterisation of how electronic components embedded in typical mouthguard material, ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), behave under typical sports impacts is crucial for future designs. A novel pendulum impact rig using a hockey ball disc impactor was developed to investigate impact forces and component failure. Two sets of dental models (aluminium and plastic padding chemical metal) were used to manufacture post-thermoformed mouthguards. Seven embedding conditions with varying thickness of EVA (1.5 and 3 mm) and locations of electrical components were tested. Component failures were observed in four out of seven test conditions, and the experimental failure forces at which the electrical component had a 50% chance of failure were reported for those cases. The experimental results showed that an EVA thickness of 3 mm surrounding the electrical component gives the most comprehensive protection even under extreme surface conformity. Computational models on surface conformity of EVA showed that a block of EVA with a minimum thickness of 1.5 mm was better at reducing stress concentration than a shell with an overall thickness of 1.5 mm. This study demonstrated that the thickness of a mouthguard is important when protecting electrical components from extreme dental surface conformity, furthermore the surface geometry should not be overlooked when considering electrical component safety for in-body wearables that are impact prone.
Highlights
It is estimated that physical inactivity cost the global health-care systems $53.8 billion annually[7] and the World Health Organisation (WHO) states that approximately two million deaths per year are attributed to physical inactivity
Thermoformed mouthguards with embedded electronic components were impacted by a hockey ball disc impactor with the mouthguard mounted on a dental cast
Impact studies with (i) no mouthguard, (ii) thin (1.5 mm) and (iii) thick (3 mm) ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) protection on both sides of the LED component were performed on dental model A to investigate the amount of EVA protection required to structurally protect electrical components of a smart mouthguard
Summary
It is estimated that physical inactivity cost the global health-care systems $53.8 billion annually[7] and the World Health Organisation (WHO) states that approximately two million deaths per year are attributed to physical inactivity. Physical activity through sports participation has become an essential part in ensuring healthy living across the globe, with some of the biggest and fastest growing sports being contact-sports. These sports create significant economic outputs, with the Rugby World Cup 2015 producing £2.3 billion from a single event and American Football being the highest revenue generating professional sports league in the world. Mouthguards work by dissipating the force of impact, reducing the force which is transferred to the dentition.[24]. They are commonly formed to the upper jaw, as this region is more susceptible to trauma. The wide advocacy of mouthguard use has led to their adoption as mandatory equipment in several sports.[14]
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