Prototype Sensor for Periodontal disease monitoring

Periodontal diseases are inflammatory conditions that affect the supporting tissues of teeth and can lead to destruction of the bone support and ultimately tooth loss if untreated. The condition is treated locally by scaling and root planing. Progression of periodontitis is usually site specific but is not uniform, and currently there are no accurate clinical methods for distinguishing sites where there is active disease progression from sites that are quiescent. This results in a significant number of, unnecessary and costly treatments of non progressing periodontal sites, which potentially cause additional damage to the tooth attachment.
In this project, a generic low cost non-invasive sensor system capable of more accurately identifying periods of active inflammation at point of care, has been developed. The work has resulted in a disposable sensor strip and a prototype meter capable of measuring, within a few minutes, the activity of four newly identified host and bacterial biomarkers of active inflammation in a fluid volume of 1.5 ul. The biosensor developed in this project is designed to significantly improve the efficiency of periodontitis targeted treatment options.