BraceIO: biosensing through hydrogel dental ligatures

Dental braces are a semi-permanent dental treatment that are in direct contact with our metabolism (saliva), food and liquids we ingest, and our environment while smiling or talking. This paper introduces braceIO, biochemical ligatures on dental braces that change colors depending on saliva concentration levels (pH, nitric oxide and acid uric), and can be read by an external device. This work presents our fabrication process of the ligatures and external device, and the technical evaluation of the absorption time, colori-metric measurement tests and the color map to the biosensor level in the app. This project aims to maintain the shape, wearability and aesthetics of traditional ligatures but with embedded biosensors. We propose a novel device that senses metabolism changes with a different biosensor ligature worn in each tooth to access multiple biodata and create seamless interactive devices.

[1]  Vanessa Reher,et al.  Nitric oxide levels in saliva increase with severity of chronic periodontitis. , 2007, Journal of oral science.

[2]  S. Humphrey,et al.  A review of saliva: normal composition, flow, and function. , 2001, The Journal of prosthetic dentistry.

[3]  Pattie Maes,et al.  Wearable Lab on Body: Combining Sensing of Biochemical and Digital Markers in a Wearable Device , 2019, 2019 41st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC).

[4]  Derek G Rodeback,et al.  Salivary uric acid as a noninvasive biomarker of metabolic syndrome , 2012, Diabetology & Metabolic Syndrome.

[5]  M. Ghovanloo,et al.  The Tongue Enables Computer and Wheelchair Control for People with Spinal Cord Injury , 2013, Science Translational Medicine.

[6]  N. Sandeep,et al.  Oral and salivary changes in patients with chronic kidney disease: A clinical and biochemical study , 2015, Journal of Indian Society of Periodontology.

[7]  Yen-Chang Chen,et al.  Sensor-embedded teeth for oral activity recognition , 2013, ISWC '13.

[8]  C. Dias,et al.  Analysis of the Influence of Food Colorings in Esthetic Orthodontic Elastomeric Ligatures , 2016, The open dentistry journal.

[9]  Ali Javey,et al.  Wearable sweat sensors , 2018 .

[10]  C. Borghi,et al.  A brief history of uric acid: From gout to cardiovascular risk factor. , 2015, European journal of internal medicine.

[11]  R. Parwani,et al.  Salivary nitric oxide levels in inflammatory periodontal disease - a case-control and interventional study. , 2012, International journal of dental hygiene.

[12]  R. Benoliel,et al.  The distribution of oral mucosal pH values in healthy saliva secretors. , 2006, Oral diseases.

[14]  Michael C. McAlpine,et al.  Graphene-based wireless bacteria detection on tooth enamel , 2012, Nature Communications.

[15]  J. Wolffsohn,et al.  Laser-inscribed contact lens sensors for the detection of analytes in the tear fluid , 2020, Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical.

[16]  M. Kaltenbrunner,et al.  An ultra-lightweight design for imperceptible plastic electronics , 2013, Nature.

[17]  J. Windmiller,et al.  A potentiometric tattoo sensor for monitoring ammonium in sweat. , 2013, The Analyst.

[18]  Pattie Maes,et al.  Byte.it: Discreet Teeth Gestures for Mobile Device Interaction , 2019, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[19]  Nan Jiang,et al.  The dermal abyss: interfacing with the skin by tattooing biosensors , 2017, SEMWEB.

[20]  Dong Sup Lee,et al.  Wireless, intraoral hybrid electronics for real-time quantification of sodium intake toward hypertension management , 2018, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[21]  Sandeep Kumar Jha,et al.  A paper strip based non-invasive glucose biosensor for salivary analysis. , 2015, Biosensors & bioelectronics.