An Active Implant to Restore Dental Proprioceptivity

The present work aims at developing a smart dental implant meant to restore the proprioceptive control of the masticatory muscle activity, in consequence of the loss of natural teeth. When periodontal afferent information is not available, the control of the occlusal forces is impaired and the capacity of regulating the masticatory force on a certain tooth or teeth is affected. The active implant being proposed detects the force exerted on teeth and proportionally generates stimuli to send that information to the brain in order to restore the neurobiological mechanisms associated to the masticatory sensory-motor function. After the description of the physiological and biomechanical aspects related to the loss of teeth and masticatory function, details are provided on the force sensing, processing and stimuli generation circuits included in the active implant being proposed. Preliminary simulation results that illustrate the implant functionality are presented.