Stress-Sensing Dental Floss: New Tech
- Chronic stress can trigger a host of health problems, from high blood pressure to weakened immunity, depression and anxiety.
- Now, engineers at Tufts University have created a simple dental floss device that accurately measures cortisol, a key stress hormone, in real time.
- Sameer Sonkusale, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Tufts, said the project began by examining the impact of stress on problem-solving and learning.
Engineers have developed a revolutionary dental floss sensor that monitors cortisol levels in real-time, providing a straightforward method to track stress, leveraging your body’s natural saliva. This innovative device, easily integrated into daily routines, offers a convenient way to monitor your stress levels—a crucial step towards mitigating potential health issues. The sensor utilizes advanced molecularly imprinted polymers (eMIPs) for precise cortisol detection, opening doors for monitoring other health markers like estrogen and glucose. News Directory 3 continues to bring you such news. Discover what’s next in this cutting-edge field of health monitoring.
Dental floss Monitors Cortisol, Offering Real-Time Stress Tracking
Updated May 23, 2024
Chronic stress can trigger a host of health problems, from high blood pressure to weakened immunity, depression and anxiety. Monitoring stress levels, however, often relies on imprecise or costly methods like questionnaires and evaluations.
Now, engineers at Tufts University have created a simple dental floss device that accurately measures cortisol, a key stress hormone, in real time. This new tool offers a convenient way to track stress and potentially monitor other health conditions.
Sameer Sonkusale, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Tufts, said the project began by examining the impact of stress on problem-solving and learning. The goal was to develop a stress monitoring tool that wouldn’t add to daily stress. “Cortisol is a stress marker found in saliva, so flossing seemed like a natural fit to take a daily sample,” Sonkusale said.
The saliva-sensing dental floss looks like a standard floss pick. Saliva is drawn into the floss through a narrow channel and spreads across electrodes that detect cortisol using electropolymerized molecularly imprinted polymers (eMIPs). This technology creates molds that “remember” the shape of cortisol molecules, allowing them to bind with free-floating molecules.
Sonkusale described eMIPs as a “game changer,” explaining that customary biosensors require meaningful investment in bioengineering. The eMIP approach allows for rapid creation of sensors for new markers of stress or other conditions.
The eMIP molds are versatile and can be adapted to detect other molecules in saliva, such as estrogen, glucose, or cancer markers. The potential to detect multiple biomarkers concurrently could improve the monitoring of stress, cardiovascular disease, cancer and other conditions.
“We didn’t want measurement to create an additional source of stress,so we thought,can we make a sensing device that becomes part of your day-to-day routine?”
The cortisol sensors offer accuracy comparable to existing market options. Sonkusale and his colleagues are launching a startup to bring the product to market, making stress monitoring accessible for various aspects of health care.
While the dental floss sensor is highly accurate, Sonkusale noted that saliva tracking is best suited for monitoring rather then initial diagnosis, as saliva markers can vary between individuals.Blood tests remain the gold standard for diagnostics.
What’s next
The dental floss sensor is part of a series of thread-based sensor innovations from Sonkusale’s team, including sensors for detecting gases, metabolites in sweat, and movement. These advancements could lead to more flexible and integrated health monitoring solutions.