Design of a Wearable Bruxism Detection Device

Bruxism is a common problem which impacts on between 8-31% of the general population and presents several symptoms including headaches, facial pain and damage to teeth for sufferers. While gold-standard technologies (e.g. polysomnography) exist and can be used in a clinical context for the diagnosis of bruxism, these are cumbersome and are constrained to laboratory-based testing as a result. In recent years, a number of portable wearable technologies have been developed and evaluated which are based on electromyography, electroencephalography, and/or electrocardiography. In this paper, the development of a novel wearable bruxism detection device based on Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) and a microphone is described as an alternative diagnostic tool for bruxism. The overall system architecture is defined and the implemented hardware platforms are described in detail. Finally, a discussion on the future work is also provided.