A Smart Mandibular Device for Intra-oral Electroencephalogram Monitoring

Abstract

Electroencaphalography (EEG) is one of the vital signs monitored during sleep study for patients suffering from obstructive sleep apnea disorder (OSA). OSA is a condition where patients suffer from irregular sleep patterns due to difficulty in breathing. A possible treatment of OSA is use of mandibular advancement devices (MADs). In this manuscript, we present a smart MAD that can monitor intraoral EEG signal. The device acquires intra-oral EEG signal from the mouth-roof. So far very limited research is done in the area of intra-oral EEG monitoring. The proposed smart MAD consists of a MAD, three flexible gold EEG electrodes and an EEG measurement system implemented on a flexible polymide substrate. The measurement system is battery operated and sends EEG data wirelessly using a BLE 5.0 transceiver. The system is validated by acquiring intra-oral EEG signal for "eye-open" and "eye-close" activities of five volunteers. The frequency domain analysis of the intra-oral EEG signal clearly shows that "eye-open" and "eye-close" activities can be detected from the data. In future, this smart MAD will be used to acquire intra-oral EEG data during sleep for OSA patients and determine sleep stages.