Chewing Gum Therapy for Dysphagia Muscle Exercise
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current therapies for oral pathologies such as dysphagia and oral motor impairments lack effective exercises that continuously mimic food mastication, as traditional methods like using food break down quickly and plastic chewy tubes are not functional or suitable for adults/geriatrics, failing to adequately activate neuro pathways.
Innovation Solution
A series of chewing gums of varying hardness, used in a speech pathology setting, that allow patients to practice mastication exercises similar to real food, with the option of lemon or sour flavors to stimulate taste buds and saliva production, enabling continuous exercise of jaw and masseter muscles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional food is used for mastication exercises, then the exercises are functional and similar to real food consumption, but the food breaks down quickly and does not allow for continuous exercise of the masseter muscles
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a disposable foam block that is intentionally designed to be consumed or degraded after a single use. The foam material provides realistic food-like mastication resistance during the exercise, then breaks down after prolonged chewing, allowing the patient to continuously chew without the object breaking down too quickly like real food would. This resolves the contradiction by providing both functional similarity and extended duration through controlled degradation.
2Ease of operation
If plastic chewy tubes are used to address oral motor impairments, then they provide a tool for therapy, but they have little impact on neuro pathways because the handle anchors down the tube, reducing the natural movement of a free form bolus
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the handle portion from the therapy tool, extracting only the essential chewing function. The foam block is designed to be placed directly in the mouth without any anchoring mechanism, allowing it to move freely like a natural food bolus. This extraction of the handle component eliminates the constraint that prevented natural movement while preserving the therapeutic chewing function.
Solution Approach 2:
The foam block is designed to copy the physical properties and movement characteristics of a natural food bolus during mastication. It mimics the deformation, displacement, and breakdown patterns of real food, providing sensory feedback and neuromuscular stimulation that closely resembles actual eating, thereby impacting neuro pathways more effectively than anchored tubes.
3Ease of operation
If plastic chewy tubes are used for dysphagia therapy, then they can be inserted and withdrawn, but they are not very functional in dysphagia therapy because they are not similar to food mastication
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical parameters of the therapy tool by using soft foam material instead of hard plastic, and by removing the handle structure. This creates an object that deforms and moves like food during mastication, providing realistic sensory feedback and neuromuscular stimulation while still being easy to insert and withdraw from the patient's mouth.
Data Source
AI summary
A collection of therapies that are useful in a speech pathology setting, the common denominator of the therapies is that they each make use of chewing gum. Chewing gum administered to a patient can be used to treat swallowing disorders and oral motor impairments. In a major aspect of the invention, a series or kit of chewing gums of varying hardness can be used to treat mastication disorders. The gum exercise program will use the varying gum hardnesses as exercises for the muscles of the mouth, mastication, oral motor, sensory/stimulation, and swallowing therapeutic interventions. The instant therapies are more functional than existing dysphagia and oral motor interventions because they are similar to masticating real food by eliciting saliva production and taste buds from the gustatory response of the lemon and sour flavors. In addition, for sensory/stimulation exercises, the varying degrees of gum hardness, along with the lemon and other flavors, provide sensory feedback.