Distributed Measurement of Bite Force by Fiber-Optic Sensorized Dental Guard

Faculty Development Competitive Research Grant Program 2021-2023

The project aims to build and test a device for measuring human bite force and,in particular,bite pressure. To achieve the goal,a silicone 3D printed mouth guard will be sensorized with a parallel of optical fiber sensors. Exploiting the paradigm of SLMux the device will be interrogated by an Optical Backscattering Reflectometer. We will obtain a distributed measurement over a 2D surface, thus to achieve a bite pressure sensing. The pressure will be converted by the geometry of the guard to a strain measurement. The device will be carefully calibrated and tested, also on human volunteers.