Miniature Passive Device for Locating Lost Dentures in Care Facilities

项目总结/摘要 对于3500万美国人来说，主要是老年人，没有剩余的天然牙齿， 至少有一颗牙齿缺失，使用可移动假牙可以有很多好处，包括改善 咀嚼、营养摄入、语言和外表，以及社会交往和情感自信。 相反，错放或丢失假牙可能会产生严重的不利影响，包括减少口腔 功能状态、高更换成本、情绪压力和挫折感。Doblets是一个复杂的学习 技术熟练者和佩戴者通常不能容易地适应替换假牙，特别是如果他们已经佩戴 以前的人多年或有影响神经肌肉功能的疾病，如痴呆症，中风，或 帕金森氏症，以及其他。长期护理机构和医院的护理人员通常报告 由于患者残疾和依赖照顾者的高患病率， 可能不熟悉管理假牙。当假牙丢失时，通常是在被移除后， 放置在餐盘，餐巾纸或纸巾，或在洗衣房，护理人员和设施直接归咎于 患者及其家属的损失。虽然家庭最终可能在经济上负责取代 假牙，这些频繁的场景造成巨大的情感挫折和潜在的冲突，所有 参与的各方。现在有许多简单对象（例如钥匙）的标记和定位技术，但 经常需要电源和充电，这对患者口腔内的假牙构成了风险。因此，我们认为， 存在一种未满足的需求，即通过以下方式来支持戴假牙的成年人，特别是老年人，以及他们的护理者， 提供一种安全、被动、低成本、快速、高效的缺失义齿定位系统， 找到并收回假肢ASTER Labs，Inc.提出要建立一个新的，完全嵌入式的， 一种微型、安全的定位解决方案，使用经过调谐的天线，完全响应特定频率， 被动的，在义齿本身内部不需要动力，并且容易封闭在义齿基托基底中。的 丢失的假牙的天线是通过一个小型的手持探测器，由护理人员操作。检测器 使用低频无线电波谐波反射和倍增技术操作。手持 检测器单元配有用户友好的智能手机移动的应用程序，以引导和帮助 帮助护理人员快速有效地寻找和定位丢失的假牙。目标是提高成功率 找到丢失假牙的比率，同时给予假牙佩戴者，家庭和护理机构和医院的工作人员 这些重要的假肢如果丢失，可以找到，从而最大限度地减少 制造和适应新的假牙的经济，身体和情感后果。的 系统设计将遵循多项安全规范和法规，以确保患者健康和良好的 存在。通过为戴假牙人群和护理人员提供一种新颖、技术先进、实用的 通过这种定位系统，老年人可以确保定期获得和使用他们的个人假牙。

Project Summary/Abstract For the 35 million Americans, primarily older adults, with no remaining natural teeth, and 178 million with at least one tooth missing, the use of removable dentures can have many benefits, including improved mastication, nutritional intake, speech, and appearance, as well as social interaction and emotional confidence. Conversely, misplacing or losing dentures can have significant detrimental effects, including reduced oral functional status, high replacement cost, emotional stress and frustration. Denture use is a complex learned skill and wearers are often unable to easily adapt to replacement dentures, especially if they have worn previous ones for many years or have disorders affecting neuromuscular function, such as dementia, stroke, or Parkinson's disease, among others. Caregivers in long term care facilities and hospitals commonly report episodes of lost dentures due to the high prevalence of patient disability and dependency on caregivers who may be unfamiliar with managing dental prostheses. When dentures are lost, often after being removed and placed on meal trays, in napkins or tissues, or in the laundry, caregivers and facilities are directly blamed for the loss by the patients and their families. While families may ultimately be financially responsible for replacing the dentures, these frequent scenarios create immense emotional frustration and potential conflict for all parties involved. Many tagging and location technologies for simple objects (e.g. keys) are now available, but frequently require power and recharging, which poses a risk for dentures inside a patient's mouth. Therefore, there exists an unmet need to support denture wearing adults, especially older adults, and their caregivers by providing a safe, passive, low cost, rapid and highly effective lost denture locating system to successfully locate and recover the prostheses. ASTER Labs, Inc. proposes to construct a novel, fully-embedded, miniature, and safe locating solution using an antenna that is tuned to respond to a specific frequency, fully passive, requires no power inside the denture itself, and is easily enclosed in the denture base substrate. The lost denture's antenna is located via a small handheld detector that is operated by the caregiver. The detector operates using low-frequency radio wave harmonic reflection and multiplication techniques. The handheld detector unit is accompanied by a user-friendly smartphone mobile application to guide and assist the caregiver in quickly and efficiently searching for and locating the lost denture. The goal is to increase success rates of locating lost dentures, while giving denture wearers, families, and staff at care facilities and hospitals the confidence and peace of mind that these important prostheses can be located if lost, thus minimizing the financial, physical, and emotional consequences of fabricating and adapting to new dental prostheses. The system design will adhere to multiple safety specifications and regulations to ensure patient health and well- being. By providing the denture-wearing population and caregivers a novel, technically advanced, and practical locating system, older adults can be assured of regular availability and use of their personal dentures.