A SENSOR embedded in a tooth could one day tell doctors when people have defied medical advice to give up smoking or eat less.
Built into a tiny circuit board that fits in a tooth cavity, the sensor includes an accelerometer that sends data on mouth motion to a smartphone. Machine learning software is taught to recognise each telltale jaw motion pattern 鈥� then works out how much of the time someone is chewing, drinking, speaking, coughing or smoking.
The inventors 鈥� Hao-hua Chu and colleagues at National Taiwan University in Taipei 鈥� want to use the mouth as a window on a variety of health issues. The device can be fitted into dentures or a dental brace, and the team plan to miniaturise the device to fit in a cavity or crown. The researchers say the sensor shows great promise: in tests on eight people with a prototype implant in dentures, the system recognised oral activities correctly 94 per cent of the time.
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The prototype was attached to a power source by an external wire, so the team still needs a way to include a microbattery. Once they manage this, the researchers want to add a Bluetooth radio. The work will be presented at the in Zurich, Switzerland, in September.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淕iven up? You鈥檙e lying through your teeth鈥�
