NightBite
Pediatric TMJ smart guard
Context
In a team of 4 biomedical engineers and 1 product design student, we were tasked to develop a novel solution for biomedical applications.
Our team’s goal was to develop a project in pediatric orthopedics.
Contribution
Research Ideation & Prototyping CAD & Rendering UX/UI
Team
Max Mosier Grace Zuniga James Hawkins Stephanie Yang Fiaz Shaw
Tools
Solidworks Adobe Ai/Id Keyshot Figma
Research
What is TMD?
Temporomandibular joint disfunction (TMD) causes pain and dysfunction in the jaw joint and muscles controlling jaw movement. TMD is found in approximately 12% of the population. Adolescents are an underserved population among TMD patients, and there is a lack of treatment options made for children.
6 million new patients a year
52% experience orofacial pain
Adolescents have difficulty:
Effectively communicating symptoms
Making behavioral changes
TMD is found in up to 68% of adolescent patients
Precedents
Hit IQ
Made specifically for monitoring impact in sports
byteSense
Doesnt prevent grinding and clenching
Not meant for pediatrics
Reazeal
Not a custom fit
Only protects teeth from grinding
Nightbite Monitors jaw behavior while the patient is at rest.
Jaw force
Teeth grinding movement
Progressional bruxism patterns
Then, it provides recommendations.
Potential dietary changes based on the state of TMD symptoms
Jaw and facial exercises with instruction to reduce muscle & joint tension
Sends data to clinician for feedback and potential flare ups
Ideation
Prototype 1:
Testing monitor ergonomics, biomechanics and scale.
Prototype 2:
Swithched to app instead of monitor device
less obtrusive grinding tabs
Prototype 3:
I developed an injection mold to make the mouthguard
Testing manufacturability and materials
The mold was made out of PLA while the mouth guard was molded from a silicon based material.
Wire-framing the app.
Refinement
Mobile application.
What are the benefits of the app?
The app takes a step out of the recovery and treatment process for TMD. Typically, patients must visit the clinician to receive treatment. However, the NightBite alleviates this process by providing the information needed through the app.
What are the functions?
The app provides a detailed log of your clinching and grinding patterns, physical therapy and dietary recommendations, and a chat box for communicating with clinicians.
NightBite can provide physical therapy recommendations, dietary changes, and provides a method to communicate with the users clinician.
Nightbite’s tabs prevent grinding, while still measuring clinch forces and grinding patterns.
The guard
Molded top guard
Pressure plate and sensor board
Grind prevention tabs
The NightBite guard has a pressure plate and a strain guage mounted on the bottom of the top guard. The pressure plate helps track deflection from grinding while the strain guage detects the amount of force from clinching.
The mouth guard is made of ethelyne-vinyl acetate, a moldable material form fit to the adolecents teeth pattern. The tab and groove help prevent grinding, while still allowing for the forces to be measured and recorded for the app.
NightBite Case.
Charges guards wirelessly
Charged by USB-C
LED battery indicators
