Measuring inside your mouth! Measurement approaches, design considerations, and one example for tongue pressure monitoring

The tongue is an important muscular organ, and its interaction with the hard palate is fundamental during speech and deglutition (the act or process of swallowing). For example, typical complications of cerebrovascular diseases are speech and deglutition disorders due to limited range of motion and tongue weaknesses. Different measurement approaches of these limitations are described in the literature. The development of low-invasive measuring systems is currently considered a priority. In this paper, we describe different approaches, design considerations, and one example: a new implantable intraoral device that we developed to measure tongue pressure [1]. This paper was first submitted to the IEEE MeMeA Symposium 2014 (© 2014 IEEE, in Proc. IEEE MeMeA, used with permission, [1].) This new device measures tongue pressure on the hard palate directly inside the oral cavity and transmits the data via a wireless link. Since no cable links the pressure sensors inside the oral cavity and the readout unit is located outside of the mouth, this device is low invasive, which represents an important feature for this type of device. We describe a typical experimental setup to study the mechanical behavior of these devices in the laboratory and specific test protocols. The field of application of these devices is the treatment of patients with deglutition and speech disorders or with gnathological (related to the entire chewing apparatus) and dental disturbances.