Abstract
Intraoral devices for bite-force sensing have several applications in odontology and maxillofacial surgery, as bite-force measurements provide additional information to help understand the characteristics of bruxism disorders and can also be of help for the evaluation of post-surgical evolution and for comparison of alternative treatments. A new system for measuring human bite forces is proposed in this work. This system has future applications for the monitoring of bruxism events and as a complement for its conventional diagnosis. Bruxism is a pathology consisting of grinding or tight clenching of the upper and lower teeth, which leads to several problems such as lesions to the teeth, headaches, orofacial pain and important disorders of the temporomandibular joint. The prototype uses a magnetic field communication scheme similar to low-frequency radio frequency identification (RFID) technology (NFC). The reader generates a low-frequency magnetic field that is used as the information carrier and powers the sensor. The system is notable because it uses an intra-mouth passive sensor and an external interrogator, which remotely records and processes information regarding a patient's dental activity. This permits a quantitative assessment of bite-force, without requiring intra-mouth batteries, and can provide supplementary information to polysomnographic recordings, current most adequate early diagnostic method, so as to initiate corrective actions before irreversible dental wear appears. In addition to describing the system's operational principles and the manufacture of personalized prototypes, this report will also demonstrate the feasibility of the system and results from the first in vitro and in vivo trials.
Highlights
Intraoral devices for bite-force sensing and measurement have several applications for odontology and maxillofacial surgery, as an additional method for assessing the degree and for monitoring of dental and occlusal pathologies and for assessing the functional state of the masticatory system [1]
Among the most important studies linked to intraoral bite-force sensing in humans are those related to the study of bruxism activity and temporomandibular joint pathologies [10,11,12]
This paper has focused on the complete development of a splint to assess intraoral clenching forces, as an aid or additional resource for diagnosing bruxism and other occlusal pathologies
Summary
Intraoral devices for bite-force sensing and measurement have several applications for odontology and maxillofacial surgery, as an additional method for assessing the degree and for monitoring of dental and occlusal pathologies and for assessing the functional state of the masticatory system [1] It is used for the evaluation of post-surgical evolution and for comparing alternative treatments and their influence on temporomandibular disorders [2]. In order to provide additional information for understanding the characteristics of bruxism disorder, as additional information for conventional diagnosis, and to compare different treatment alternatives of bruxism, our research team proposes the use of novel instrumented splints for detecting and recording the intensity and duration of bruxism events. The use of a wireless external interrogator/reader allows the collection of the desired information in a more convenient way, when compared to previous proposals from our team [21,22] and to the devices used in other studies [23,24]
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