Design and Fabrication of a Flexible Sensory System for Tongue Pressure Measurement in Swallowing Disorder Diagnosis

This study introduces a novel flexible sensory system designed for the quantitative assessment of tongue pressure. This sensory system is made for clinical practices and assessing tongue pressure in dysphagia patients. It consists of multiple pressure sensors made by SWCNTs and nanocomposite on interdigitated microelectrodes. The sensor’s resistance changes with varying tongue pressure, demonstrating a consistent and reliable response between 830 Ohm to 6.8 kilo Ohm over 0 to 50 N force. It showed a good sensitivity even in higher forces. The substrate was a very flexible Kapton film and a wireless board with a hybrid flexible high structure was designed and fabricated to avoid required wiring sensors out of the mouth.