No batteries? This device allows you to monitor your oral health anytime, anywhere

The human mouth contains a wealth of information about overall health, from body temperature to head and jaw movements during sleep, and this data is crucial for understanding health conditions and dental problems, yet collecting this data is often cumbersome. Recently, however, researchers at Delft University of Technology and Radboud University have developed an innovative intraoral health monitoring technology called Densor, which provides a completely new solution for oral health monitoring.

Densor is a battery-free sensor platform that can be worn in the mouth via standard orthodontics or "bite splints." This design allows Densor to accurately measure jaw and head movements, as well as distinguish between speech, swallowing, and drinking, making it more accurate and user-friendly than traditional methods such as ear-worn accelerometers. This design also greatly improves patient comfort, while also providing more accurate data for oral health monitoring.

Densor includes three sensing modes:

*A triaxial accelerometer for monitoring the position of the jaw

*Detection of an open photodiode by optical measurement

*Temperature sensor for measuring oral temperature

Densor devices utilize non-volatile memory to store measurements, communicate wirelessly using a near field communication (NFC) interface, and are compatible with most smartphones. It collects energy through NFC-based energy capture, storing electrical energy in capacitors rather than in conventional batteries. These capacitors provide enough energy to intermittently power the sensors, and feature a low-power real-time clock that saves power between measurements, so they can be sensed for long periods after a single charge.

The promise of Densor is so broad that it could support applications in areas including sleep research, apnea and tooth wear diagnosis. Currently, the researchers are working to expand the platform by adding sensors and integrated data processing to unlock more possibilities, and in the future the platform may be expanded to broader applications such as detecting acid reflux and monitoring saliva secretion.