Stimulating Bone Growth Through Piezoelectric Ultrasound Transducers in Dentures

 

Description of Project

The purpose of this design is to create a device that will maintain the integrity of the
mandible and maxilla for people with edentulism. Since people with edentulism do not have
teeth to provide mechanical force to the bone, the bone starts to resorb. When bone resorbs it
becomes weaker and is therefore more susceptible to fracture. The device will use ultrasound
transducers to maintain the bone. Ultrasound mechanical energy will propagate through the
gums and into the bone. This propagation will provide mechanical stress stimulus to the bones
causing bone growth. The goal is to create a mouthpiece with transducers on it powered by a
circuit with a rechargeable power supply. The transducers will be custom built to form to the
mouthpiece using barium titanate as the piezoelectric material. The device will use a flyback
inductor circuit to power the transducers, which uses a booster circuit principle that sends a
large current to the target, in this case the transducer, when a switch is opened. This will
enable the transducers to run on a simple 9V rechargeable battery. To prove the effectiveness
of the transducers and find the optimal transducer frequency, tests will be performed on
BetaGal mice. The transducers will be applied directly to the jaw of the mice once a day for ten
minutes for a span of 30 days. Two trials will be done to ensure the accuracy. Afterwards, the
mice will be stained for the enzyme Beta-Galactosidase, which the mice have been genetically
altered to synthesize when bone growth occurs. The results from these tests will determine the
frequency of the human device. Once this is finished human transducers will be produced for
the final prototype.