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Wireless braces collect important health data via smartphone
Last reviewed: 03.07.2025
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The oral cavity contains a wealth of information about a person’s health. Body temperature, head and jaw movements during sleep – all of this data can be key to diagnosing diseases and dental problems. However, collecting it is often inconvenient and difficult.
What is Densor?
Researchers at TU Delft in collaboration with Radboudumc have developed an innovative device – Densor, a sensor platform that operates without batteries. The device is attached to the oral cavity using standard braces or a "bite splint".
Densor is safe, easy to use and requires no additional equipment. A smartphone is enough for charging and reading data.
The results of the study were published in the Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies.
Key Features of Densor
- Open Access: The device's hardware and software are open source, allowing experts around the world to adapt it to their needs.
- Wide range of applications: Diagnosing apnea, monitoring tooth wear, tracking compliance with treatment recommendations and much more.
- Accuracy and convenience: The device can distinguish between movements associated with speech, swallowing and drinking, making it more accurate than traditional methods such as accelerometers attached to the ear.
"Densor is not just a technological innovation. It is a step towards accessible and inclusive health monitoring," said Przemysław Pawelczak, Associate Professor of Embedded Systems at TU Delft.
Possibilities and future of technology
Densor opens the door to new preventative and diagnostic capabilities, including:
- Sleep studies: Accurate data on jaw and head movements during sleep.
- Diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux and tooth wear.
- Monitoring salivary secretion and adherence to dietary recommendations.
"The ability to collect long-term data in real time using a convenient device is a real revolution," said Bas Loomans, a professor at Radboudumc.
Next steps
Researchers continue to work on expanding the platform's capabilities. The following are planned:
- Additional sensors for a wider range of measurements.
- Integration of data processing functions.
- Acceleration and increase in the duration of measurements.
Densor promises to be a versatile health monitoring tool that will find application in a variety of fields, from dentistry to gastroenterology and sleep research.