Intraoral sensor based on laser-induced graphene for monitoring oral function

Oral cavity provides an ideal environment not only for assessing essential oral functions such as chewing and swallowing but also for capturing various bio-signals, including biomarkers and metabolites in saliva. In this presentation, we demonstrate intraoral sensors for continuous monitoring of both mechanical and chemical bio-signals for advanced individual healthcare. We employed laser-induced graphene (LIG), which is a conductive three-dimensional (3D) porous carbon material generated through simple laser carbonization, as a sensing electrode. LIG exhibits remarkable mechanical/chemical properties and biocompatibility, enabling reliable operation in the oral environment. In addition, we introduce two representative applications of the proposed LIG-based intraoral platform: a tongue pressure sensor for oral function assessment and a saliva-based electrochemical biosensor for biomarker detection. We believe that this simple LIG-based oral sensor can not only contribute to effective elderly healthcare monitoring, but also open new opportunities for early diagnosis and individual health management.