Smart-Tooth Glucose Sensor via Photoacoustic Spectroscopy
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current blood glucose monitoring devices are invasive, painful, and prone to errors due to skin temperature fluctuations and varying tissue properties, making continuous non-invasive monitoring challenging.
Innovation Solution
A smart-tooth device embedded with a monochromatic light source and sensors within a molar tooth pulp chamber uses photoacoustic spectroscopy to measure blood glucose levels, leveraging the stable temperature and hard walls of the tooth for accurate, non-invasive or partially-invasive glucose monitoring.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If optical measurements are performed on skin surface, then non-invasive glucose monitoring is achieved, but measurement accuracy deteriorates due to temperature fluctuations and varying tissue properties
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the measurement site from the skin surface to the tooth pulp chamber. By placing sensors inside the tooth pulp where blood vessels are naturally present, the device obtains direct access to blood for glucose measurement while maintaining a non-invasive external interface through the tooth structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention creates a localized stable environment within the tooth pulp chamber that is isolated from external temperature fluctuations. The tooth structure acts as a thermal buffer, providing a consistent local environment for optical measurements regardless of ambient temperature changes.
2Measurement precision
If invasive glucometer pricks are used, then measurement accuracy is improved, but patient comfort and compliance deteriorate due to pain and blood handling
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the blood sampling function from the skin surface to the tooth pulp chamber. The tooth pulp naturally contains blood vessels, allowing direct optical measurement of blood glucose without requiring external blood draws or skin punctures.
Solution Approach 2:
The tooth structure serves as an intermediary between the external environment and the blood vessels in the pulp chamber. This natural biological structure provides a protected pathway for optical sensors to access blood glucose without direct skin penetration or external blood handling.
3Ease of operation
If skin surface measurements are performed, then non-invasive monitoring is achieved, but reliability deteriorates due to frequent calibration requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The tooth pulp chamber provides a localized stable environment with consistent temperature and tissue properties. This stable local environment eliminates the need for frequent calibration that plagues skin surface measurements, as the measurement conditions remain constant over time.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of adapting to the variable conditions of skin surface measurements, the invention inverts the approach by utilizing the stable, controlled environment of the tooth pulp chamber. This reverses the problem-solution dynamic by making the measurement environment stable rather than requiring adaptation to environmental variations.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The device achieves direct measurement of blood glucose levels with high accuracy, demonstrating a 3.5% increase in peak-to-peak reading for 2.5% Dextrose Water and 4.6% increase for 5% Dextrose, showing a linear correlation between glucose concentration and signal amplitude, providing a stable and effective monitoring solution.
Implementation Method 1
Under this scenario with a few sensors and transducers, it is possible to measure glucose level of the blood in the pulp using photoacoustic spectroscopy
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein is a device and method for a smart-tooth glucose monitoring device. The device is created in response to the desire for an accurate and non-invasive or partially-invasive monitoring device as an alternative to current methods of the glucometer lancet and strips. The device consists of a tooth and its pulp chamber to achieve direct measurement of blood, an optic source and sensors that measure the wavelengths emitted by the optic source. The tooth is embedded with a flexible circuit with a monochromatic light as an optic source with different sensors such as PZT transducer and photodiode within a modified porcelain crown. The monochromatic light pulses passes through the tooth and its pulp chamber and the photoacoustics measured by the sensors which can then be utilized to determine glucose concentration in the blood.