Concussion-predictive mouth-guard or other protective equipment

Columbia University Science & Technology Ventures
posted on 06/19/2008

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Problem or Unmet Need Concussion is a common and under-diagnosed injury in sports. While some head injuries may initially appear to be mild, concussions can have serious, long-term effects, especially repeat head injuries or cumulative concussions. Knowledge of whether an athlete has experienced a head impact large enough to cause a brain injury is essential for concussion diagnosis and for the prevention further head trauma. Current commercial solutions include helmets which house multiple electrical accelerometers that can wirelessly send impact information to a base station. These products are costly, require retrofitting to the helmet and contain sensitive electronics. New, low-cost technologies are needed that can objectively and scientifically detect impacts sufficient to cause a concussion and are available to all levels of athletes

Details of the Invention This invention is a concussion predictive mouth-guard which can be used for various sports including football and hockey. An inexpensive, non-electronic sensor is embedded into a standard mouth-guard and can detect, in real time, the magnitude of impact received by the wearer, and whether the impact is sufficient to cause a concussion. The mouth-guard can contain one of three sensors: 1) a capillary filled with a non-toxic dye that will burst in response to a supra-threshold impact, 2) a tube separated into compartments by various membranes of different breakage thresholds that will allow a dye to spread into different compartments in response to different magnitudes of impact, or 3) a spring loaded sensor that will displace the indicator in response to a supra-threshold impact.

Provides an immediate and easy-to-read indication that an athlete has incurred a potentially serious head injury Sensors that are developed in different directions and with different thresholds provide information about the size and direction of impact Allows for the identification and documentation of high-risk events in various sports and provides a research tool for studying the relationship between high-force impact and brain injury severity

Inexpensive and disposable, and does not require maintenance or delicate care for electronics Sensor can withstand both construction (boil and bite) and use (sub-threshold impact, general wear-and-tear, cleaning, etc) of the mouth-guard Impact-detecting sensors can be incorporated into other athletic safety equipment including helmets, padding and shoes, to monitor traumatic impacts to other portions of the body