Smart Toothbrush Research Articles

A Pilot Study Exploring Caregivers' Experiences Related to the Use of a Smart Toothbrush by Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Research on caregivers for children with intellectual disabilities, particularly those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), has highlighted several obstacles to achieving better oral health. These include challenges with tolerating oral care, sensory processing differences, uncooperative behaviors, and communication impairments. There is limited understanding of what caregivers would consider "successful assistance" in improving oral health for these children. This pilot study aimed to examine caregivers' and user's experiences with a Kids Smart Electric Toothbrush used by children with ASD. It involved open-ended interviews and questionnaires with caregivers prior to utilization of the toothbrush and after 4 weeks of product use by the child. Seventeen children with ASD, aged 5-12, participated. A total of 58.8% of caregivers said their child brushed more often, and all reported brushing at least twice a day by week 4. Caregivers reported that children became more independent while brushing their teeth and achieved better quality brushing. Caregivers' frustration with the brushing process, satisfaction with the device, and need to assist the child with brushing were improved. Caregivers did encounter some technical difficulties with the app. This study will assist in exploring "smart" toothbrush technologies for oral hygiene in children with ASD.

Effectiveness of smart toothbrush for remote oral hygiene management in liver/kidney transplant patients

Effectiveness of smart toothbrush for remote oral hygiene management in liver/kidney transplant patients

OralMate: Intelligent Brushing Monitoring Using a Smart Toothbrush

Tooth Brushes are the most commonly used oral hygiene aids. Dental plaque, a sticky, colourless film of bacteria build-up and covers the enamel of the teeth and can cause tooth decay, gum disease, and dental disease. So, it is very important to remove dental plaque to keep teeth clean and healthy. OralMate is an IOT enabled smart toothbrush. OralMate helps in monitoring the pressure while brushing teeth, keeps check of the duration of the brushing and monitors the intensity of brushing. OralMate comes with an application that keeps a record of the brushing sessions and related parameters. The main aim is to help people to maintain their oral health. OralMate is an effective way to help people develop a proper brushing method to keep their teeth healthy. A proper brushing method includes many factors, like the pressure applied on the teeth, the number of brush strokes, and the time duration for which the brushing is done. These factors fulfilled individually might not be enough and must be fulfilled as a whole.

Smart Toothbrush as an Educational Medium to Improve the Toothbrushing Skills of Blind Children

Smart Toothbrush as an Educational Medium to Improve the Toothbrushing Skills of Blind Children

Effectiveness of an Oral Health Education Program Using a Smart Toothbrush with Quantitative Light-Induced Fluorescence Technology in Children

This randomized controlled trial aimed to educate patients and manage oral hygiene remotely via a smart toothbrush (ST) by using mobile applications and to improve oral hygiene and habits by evaluating the plaque state via images from a Q-ray cam, which is a quantitative light-induced fluorescence (QLF) digital imaging device. In total, 68 children (aged 6-12 years) were randomly divided into three groups. Group I was assigned an electro-toothbrush (ET), group II was assigned a smart toothbrush (ST), and group III used a manual toothbrush (MT). Each group used an assigned toothbrush and was checked after 1 and 3 months. Oral hygiene status was evaluated using the patient hygiene performance (PHP) index and fluorescent plaque index (FPI), which are presented in the QLF program. In addition, questionnaires on oral health behaviors and attitudes were also evaluated. There was a 0.24 decrease in the PHP index and a 1.40 decrease in the simple hygiene score three months later compared with the baseline in the ST group, with no significant difference between the three methods (p = 0.518, p = 0.626). Many group II participants said that ST helped with oral hygiene, and they were willing to use it continuously. In addition, all participants' brushing times and attitudes toward oral hygiene improved after oral hygiene education using a Q-ray cam. Therefore, the use of STs provided good dental health education and a plaque-decreasing effect to children aged 6-12 years old. Furthermore, the QLF device can be used as a useful tool for maintaining good oral hygiene in children.

Dental plaque removal efficiency of a smart toothbrush based on augmented reality in children

Dental plaque removal efficiency of a smart toothbrush based on augmented reality in children

Efficacy of tooth brushing via a three-dimensional motion tracking system for dental plaque control in school children: a randomized controlled clinical trial

BackgroundSchool children are in a developmental period in which permanent teeth replace primary dentition. It is also a period with a high incidence of gingivitis and caries, which can be improved with adequate tooth brushing. Advances in information technology have led to the development of smart health devices that assist in tooth brushing. We compared the effectiveness of computer-assisted toothbrushing using a toothbrushing instruction (TBI) method called the smart toothbrush and smart mirror (STM) system with that of conventional TBI (verbal instructions) for plaque control in school children.MethodsThis randomized controlled clinical trial analyzed and compared the reduction of the modified Quigley-Hein plaque index between the two methods in 42 school children. The participants were randomly assigned to the STM system group (n = 21) or conventional-TBI group (n = 21). The plaque indices were evaluated at baseline, immediately after TBI (day 0), and 1 week and 1 month after TBI.ResultsThe STM system and conventional TBI led to an average reduction of 40.50% and 40.57%, respectively, in whole mouth plaque. Reductions in the plaque indices within each tested time period were observed in both groups (P < 0.001), and the mean plaque reduction did not differ between the two groups (P = 0.44).ConclusionsThe present study tested a computer assisted system for TBI, more studies are needed to confirm its usefulness in different objectives.Clinical relevance The computer-assisted STM system may be an alternative of TBI for children.Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04627324) Registered 13/11/2020—Retrospectively registered, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04627324.

Integrated Dental Health Monitoring using Smart Tooth Brush and Application

Dental and oral health is the main need of people, including to children. Since, about 60 – 90% of children are suffering from dental caries. The prevention of dental caries is an important part of conducting. The digitalization era has influenced the dental and oral health education. Tooth brushing is one way to keep dental and oral health. However, the proper tooth brushing has not been achieved by children. Our objective is to conduct dental and oral health programs for children by creating a smart tooth brush named TOMON (Tooth Monster Hunter) and an application of monitoring named SIMOGI (Sistem Monitoring Kesehatan Gigi / Dental Health Monitoring System). We undertook this study by planning the monitoring system. The monitoring system is divided into three parties: dental therapist, parent and children. Dental therapists and parents are collaborated to handle and educate children about proper tooth brushing. Second, is the analysis of the requirement. The analysis stage consists of application program content. The last is the prototyping stage. In the prototyping stage, the smart toothbrush TOMON and application SIMOGI were made. The results of the research are the smart toothbrush TOMON and SIMOGI application can be used for health promotion for the children.

Effects of Tooth Brushing Training, Based on Augmented Reality Using a Smart Toothbrush, on Oral Hygiene Care among People with Intellectual Disability in Korea.

(1) Purpose: In modern society, augmented reality (AR)-based training using a smart device has emerged as a means of resolving problems with training. Thus, this feasibility study aimed to identify the effects of tooth-brushing training, based on AR using a smart toothbrush, on oral hygiene care among people with an intellectual disability in Korea. (2) Methods: Thirty people with an intellectual disability, residing in a residential care facility, were selected. Tooth-brushing training based on AR, using a smart toothbrush, was applied in the experimental group (n = 15), and training using visual material was applied in the control group (n = 15). As an assessment of oral hygiene care, the changes in tooth-brushing performance and oral hygiene were measured. (3) Results: There were significant differences in all results after training between the two groups. (4) Conclusions: Tooth-brushing training based on AR using a smart toothbrush is more effective than training using visual material on oral hygiene care among the subjects of this feasibility study. Thus, training based on AR using a smart toothbrush could be applied to people with intellectual disabilities residing in residential care facilities as an individual tool for tooth-brushing training.

Intelligent Brushing Monitoring Using a Smart Toothbrush with Recurrent Probabilistic Neural Network.

Smart toothbrushes equipped with inertial sensors are emerging as high-tech oral health products in personalized health care. The real-time signal processing of nine-axis inertial sensing and toothbrush posture recognition requires high computational resources. This paper proposes a recurrent probabilistic neural network (RPNN) for toothbrush posture recognition that demonstrates the advantages of low computational resources as a requirement, along with high recognition accuracy and efficiency. The RPNN model is trained for toothbrush posture recognition and brushing position and then monitors the correctness and integrity of the Bass Brushing Technique. Compared to conventional deep learning models, the recognition accuracy of RPNN is 99.08% in our experiments, which is 16.2% higher than that of the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and 21.21% higher than the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model. The model we used can greatly reduce the computing power of hardware devices, and thus, our system can be used directly on smartphones.

Monetary incentives for improving smartphone-measured oral hygiene behaviors in young children: A randomized pilot trial.

AimsTo assess feasibility, acceptability, and early efficacy of monetary incentive-based interventions on fostering oral hygiene in young children measured with a Bluetooth-enabled toothbrush and smartphone application.DesignA stratified, parallel-group, three-arm individually randomized controlled pilot trial.SettingTwo Los Angeles area Early Head Start (EHS) sites.Participants36 parent-child dyads enrolled in an EHS home visit program for 0–3 year olds.InterventionsEligible dyads, within strata and permuted blocks, were randomized in equal allocation to one of three groups: waitlist (delayed monetary incentive) control group, fixed monetary incentive package, or lottery monetary incentive package. The intervention lasted 8 weeks.OutcomesPrimary outcomes were a) toothbrushing performance: mean number of Bluetooth-recorded half-day episodes per week when the child’s teeth were brushed, and b) dental visit by the 2-month follow-up among children with no prior dental visit. The a priori milestone of 20% more frequent toothbrushing identified the intervention for a subsequent trial. Feasibility and acceptability measures were also assessed, including frequency of parents syncing the Bluetooth-enabled toothbrush to the smartphone application and plaque measurement from digital photographs.FindingsDigital monitoring of toothbrushing was feasible. Mean number of weekly toothbrushing episodes over 8 weeks was 3.9 in the control group, 4.1 in the fixed incentive group, and 6.0 in the lottery incentive group. The lottery group had 53% more frequent toothbrushing than the control group and 47% more frequent toothbrushing than the fixed group. Exploratory analyses showed effects concentrated among children ≤24 months. Follow-up dental visit attendance was similar across groups. iPhone 7 more reliably captured evaluable images than Photomed Cannon G16.ConclusionsTrial protocol and outcome measures were deemed feasible and acceptable. Results informed the study protocol for a fully powered trial of lottery incentives versus a delayed control using the smart toothbrush and remote digital incentive program administration.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT03862443.

(Invited) Wearable Electrochemical Sensors for Noninvasive Monitoring of Health

Wearable electronic devices equipped with physical sensors that can monitor physical activity and vital signs have been commercially available for years. The last several years have witnessed a trend to integrate sensors for electrochemical analysis onto wearable devices that can at the molecular level provide insight into the state of human health for applications such as early diagnostics. Sensors for perspiration glucose monitoring has attracted much attention and has been reported by several researchers owing to the growing worldwide problem of diabetes. We have reported a nonenzymatic wearable sensor for electrochemical perspiration glucose analysis. Multipotential steps are applied on a Au electrode, including a high negative potential step for pretreatment of the sample which produces a localized alkaline condition on the electrode surface, a moderate potential for glucose detection under the alkaline condition, and a positive potential to clean the electrode surface. Fluorocarbon-based materials are coated on the Au electrode for improving the selectivity and robustness of the sensor. A fully integrated wristband is developed for real-time monitoring of perspiration glucose, and uploading the test results to a smartphone app via Bluetooth, as shown in Figure 1. The analytical results are also compared with that obtained using a HPLC-MS.1. Xiaofei Zhu, Shuai Yuan, Yinhui Ju, Jun Yang, Chao Zhao*, Hong Liu* Water Splitting-Assisted Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Glucose with a Metal Organic Framework for Wearable Nonenzymatic Perspiration Sensing. Anal. Chem., DOI:10.1021/acs.analchem.9b02328.2. Jian Chen, Xiaofei Zhu, Yinhui Ju, Biao Ma, Chao Zhao,* Hong Liu, * Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Glucose on Bronze for Monitoring of Saliva Glucose Using a Smart Toothbrush. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 2019, 285, 56-61.3. Xiaofei Zhu, Yinhui Ju, Jian Chen, Deye Liu, and Hong Liu,* Nonenzymatic Wearable Sensor for Electrochemical Analysis of Perspiration Glucose. ACS Sensors 2018, 2018, 3, 1135–1141.

Electrocatalytic oxidation of glucose on bronze for monitoring of saliva glucose using a smart toothbrush

Bronze is one of copper alloy materials that have been widely used not only in the Bronze Age, but also nowadays because they are hard, easy to cast and resistant against corrosion. For bronze, tin is commonly used as the major non-copper ingredient of bronze because of many highly desirable characteristics including the fact that metallic tin is not toxic. We find that the tin bronze is a suitable electrode material for non-enzymatic electrochemical glucose sensing in saliva. For electrocatalytic oxidation of glucose on the bronze electrode, a negative potential is applied for proton reduction which creates a temporary alkaline condition. The sensor has a linear range from 0 to 320 μM with the regression equation: i = 11 + 0.015 C (i is the current in μA and C is the concentration in μM) with a correlation coefficient of 0.994. The sensitivity is found to be 480 μA mM−1 cm-2, and the detection limit is 6.6 μM with a signal-to-noise ratio of 3. The electrode is found to be highly selective towards glucose oxidation in the presence of interfering species such as ascorbic acid and uric acid. The electrochemical senor is integrated into a smart toothbrush for monitoring of saliva glucose, which is potentially useful for non-invasive screening of diabetes. Compared with other electrochemical glucose sensors, a naked bronze electrode is used as the working electrode to ensure the robustness of the sensor. No additional reagent is involved for the electrochemical determination of saliva glucose and the electrode can be regenerated simply by mechanically polishing for long-term uses.

Smart toothbrush to make brushing fun for kids

Smart toothbrush to make brushing fun for kids

Smart toothbrush will provide real time guidance to patients

Smart toothbrush will provide real time guidance to patients

Smart toothbrush will provide real time guidance to patients

Smart toothbrush will provide real time guidance to patients

A smart toothbrush with dramatic bathroom appeal

A smart toothbrush with dramatic bathroom appeal

Closing the Science-Health Gap With Technology: Evidence-Based Living.

Closing the Science-Health Gap With Technology: Evidence-Based Living.

A smart toothbrush in more ways than one

A smart toothbrush in more ways than one

Efficacy of computer-assisted, 3D motion-capture toothbrushing instruction.

The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of computer-assisted TBI using a smart toothbrush (ST) and smart mirror (SM) in plaque control to that of conventional TBI. We evaluated the plaque removal efficacy of a ST comprising a computer-assisted, wirelessly linked, three-dimensional (3D) motion-capture, data-logging, and SM system in TBI. We also evaluated the efficacy of TBI with a ST and SM system by analyzing the reductions of the modified Quigley-Hein plaque index in 60 volunteers. These volunteers were separated randomly into two groups: conventional TBI (control group) and computer-assisted TBI (experimental group). The changes in the plaque indexes were recorded immediately, 1 week, 1 month, and 10 months after TBI. The patterns of decreases in the modified Quigley-Hein plaque indexes were similar in the two groups. Reductions of the plaque indexes of both groups in each time period were observed (P < 0.0001), and the effects of TBI did not differ between the two groups (P = 0.3803). All volunteers were sufficiently motivated in using this new system. The reported new, computer-assisted TBI system might be an alternative option in controlling dental plaque and maintaining oral hygiene. Individuals can be motivated by the new system; meanwhile, comparable effects of controlling dental plaque can be achieved.