Desperately need help with teeth grinding device

[frozenmichigan]

Without making this super long, I am in a desperate situation with my night time tooth grinding. I have spent a lot of money on mouthguards and even biofeedback devices with no results. I have to eat soft foods now and I can't sing or talk for any extended time without my jaw and face muscles starting to spasm. The issue used to be an annoyance but it has become a disability now and I am getting desperate. What I need is something that can sense when I start to clench and grind my teeth, and sound an alarm to wake me up. I have tried two biofeedback devices that work by sticking an emg sensor on the muscle (one used the temples and the other used the jaw "masseter" muscle) and sounding an alarm when activity is detected, but they both sound false alarms nonstop and basically don't work at all. In other words the alarm goes off every time I move to adjust my position in any way and the devices are useless. I need something with an actual sensor that detects pressure inside the mouth when the teeth are clenched, and sounds an alarm. I am sure this could be done with a sensor that transmits wirelessly to a laptop or something but I am not sure about the safety of transmitting from inside my head like that, so maybe an insulated wire would be better. If I knew how to design this safely I would have already bought the electrical parts and built it myself, but I have no idea. Could some of the geniuses here please help me with this??? It would change my life.

 

[Gryd3]

Without making this super long, I am in a desperate situation with my night time tooth grinding. I have spent a lot of money on mouthguards and even biofeedback devices with no results. I have to eat soft foods now and I can't sing or talk for any extended time without my jaw and face muscles starting to spasm. The issue used to be an annoyance but it has become a disability now and I am getting desperate. What I need is something that can sense when I start to clench and grind my teeth, and sound an alarm to wake me up. I have tried two biofeedback devices that work by sticking an emg sensor on the muscle (one used the temples and the other used the jaw "masseter" muscle) and sounding an alarm when activity is detected, but they both sound false alarms nonstop and basically don't work at all. In other words the alarm goes off every time I move to adjust my position in any way and the devices are useless. I need something with an actual sensor that detects pressure inside the mouth when the teeth are clenched, and sounds an alarm. I am sure this could be done with a sensor that transmits wirelessly to a laptop or something but I am not sure about the safety of transmitting from inside my head like that, so maybe an insulated wire would be better. If I knew how to design this safely I would have already bought the electrical parts and built it myself, but I have no idea. Could some of the geniuses here please help me with this??? It would change my life.

You could sleep with your tongue out...
You attempt to clench your teeth and the resulting pain will wake you!

On to your topic though... There are all sorts of sensors that can be used, but safety is a major concern. My thoughts on safety are more along the lines of being strangled with any wires that may protrude from the device, or having a battery leak or corrode in the device while you sleep. I am less concerned with radio transmission from inside your mouth, but I have been radiating myself with my cell-phone for the past number of years with no ill-effects yet.

For this project to be successful you may need to consult with someone with dental experience to be able to make a custom mouth guard to hold a small rechargeable cell and the transmitter. It would be best if you can permanently seal the whole thing together. The battery would not be replaceable, but may still be rechargeable with something like induction charging. (Or perhaps 2 very carefully chosen contacts)
The electronics used to monitor the force on the mouthguard would use a very small amount of current, but would need to be programmed specifically for this case.

 

[Laplace]

Was searching for piezoelectric bite pressure sensors, on the theory that a piezo sensor could also be used as a piezo audio alarm with direct bone conduction from the tooth to the ear, but instead found these examples of what's involved in bruxism monitoring.

https://www.cae.wisc.edu/~bmedesgn/fall01/bruxism/FinalPaperBME.pdf Mouth Guard for Treating Bruxism with Electrostimulation

http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/12/9/11544/pdf Novel System for Bite-Force Sensing and Monitoring Based on Magnetic Near Field Communication