A mouth guard has been developed by researchers at the University of California, San Diego that is able to track health metrics such as levels of uric acid, lactate and cortisol in saliva.
The information can then be delivered directly to a smartphone, computer or tablet. The mouth guard could be used to monitor patients without having to use invasive procedures. It could also help monitor athletes during a game, or to monitor stress levels for people like soldiers.
"The ability to monitor continuously and non-invasively saliva biomarkers holds considerable promise for many biomedical and fitness applications," said Joseph Wang, an electrical engineering professor at the UC San Diego, who headed up the team, in an interview with PhysOrg.
The research was described in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics.
Researchers were able to show that the mouth guard is an effective way to monitor uric acid levels in saliva, however, while the device has been tested with human saliva, it has not actually been yet used in a person's mouth. Instead, researchers collected saliva samples from volunteers, spreading the samples on the sensor and producing readings. Researchers collected samples from both healthy volunteers and those with hyperuricemia, a condition in which a person has high levels of uric acid in their blood.
As far as the design of the mouth guard goes, the researchers created a screen-printed sensor. The sensor was created with silver, Prussian blue ink and uricase, an enzyme that has a reaction when it comes in contact with uric acid. Saliva itself is extremely complex and has a number of biomarkers, so researchers had to make sure that the sensors in the device only reacted when in contact with uric acid.
The chip inside the device was created with the use of a number of small chips that can sense the output of the sensors and then turn that information into data.
The next step for the researchers is to find a way to embed the electronics inside the mouth guard so that it can be worn. Researchers hope to have the next version of the mouth guard out in one year.
Via: PhysOrg
Photo: UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering | Flickr
