Whether we are eating, drinking, talking, coughing, breathing, or smoking, our mouths are always in use. Because the mouth is an opening that can yield health information for our body, a National Taiwan University team designed a tooth sensor that embeds within a single tooth.
Mostly the nutritionists frequently suggest patients keep a food diary with them to track their meals and evade overeating and make tabs on nutrients like fat, vitamins, and salt.
But listing down everything you eat daily is tiresome. In the future, we may be able to track our food intake with a sticker that is attached to our teeth.
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The Tufts University researchers have created a tooth sensor that can track one’s salt, alcohol, glucose and send the statistics to a device ( wireless connection). This sensor has the dimensions of a two-millimeter-by-two-millimeter stretchy sensor that can link to a tooth’s closely rutted surface.
This sensor consists of three layers: two outer gold rings and an inner layer of bioresponsive that is subtle to salt, alcohol, and glucose.
Through this, all three layers can act as tentacles, giving out the information to cellular devices like smartphones and tablets. And if we talk about the prototype’s material, it is only sensitive to alcohol, salt, and glucose. The researchers are anticipating for it to become aware of a far more comprehensive range of chemicals and nutrients.
Database of Food consumption:
If you want to think about nutrition management, then, in this case, you can go forward with the sensor and engineer it to have a database of food consumption.
It tells us that we are engaging ourselves too much in sugar or something like that.
Fiorenzo Omenetto, a professor of engineering who directed the research.
Wireless Communication Modules:
Scientists have developed a device that is wearable for observing our food consumption.
Most of them are in the form of mouth guards.
The American and Japanese scientists just developed devices that can monitor uric acid and monitor glucose. Both of these devices comprise wireless communication modules and biosensors. But these devices demand a well-wearing mouth guard.
Detectives:
Usually, people with diabetes could hypothetically use the new tooth sensor to observe their sugar consumption and transmit them to their doctors. This could be useful for people with other medical conditions that need them to follow their eating. For instance, patients with high blood pressure who need to restrict their salt or people with celiac disorder who need to stop gluten entirely can make great use of it.
So this device could potentially act as a detective to physiological states like changes in the saliva that signal mounting gum syndrome. Perhaps it could become aware of fatigue’s chemical indications and indicate when you are too exhausted to drive.
At Imperial College London, a bioengineering professor, Ben Almquist, says that the biosensors can become aware of saliva modifications only because of the existence of compounds such as alcohol, sugar, and salt.
But Bem Almquist also says that there will be essential obstacles just before the technology is ready for the daily use of food diary supernumerary.
Using sensors in saliva:
Ben Almquist further says that the smaller amount of multifaceted uses might be more rapidly observed. The one thing that is very important in monitoring critical care patients is noticing mixes in saliva like lactate and athletes for training duration.
How can it be used?
The sensor might be mounted on the backside of a tooth where it’s not visible. The prominent front tooth was only used in Tufts press material to show off the world’s technology.
What and how much to eat?
For an ideal diet, it might be ready to lend a hand to the users to record what they have eaten and how much, which would be beneficial for those who try to lose their weight. It could also assist someone in making a sizeable dietary modification.
It might help us enhance understanding of human diet and nutrition, letting researchers make strong links in the middle of dietary consumption and health.
At this time, most of the sensors can easily detect what you have eaten. But it still has ways to measure how much of anyone constituent you have taken so far.
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Conclusion
One research team says that we are creating a brand new nominally hostile system that can identify and observe gum ailments. It would be advantageous to the sixty-four million U.S. citizens with periodontal syndrome and will assist the dentists.
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