Title :
Design and Implementation of Therapeutic Ultrasound Generating Circuit for Dental Tissue Formation and Tooth-Root Healing
Author :
Woon Tiong Ang ; Scurtescu, C. ; Wing Hoy ; El-Bialy, T. ; Ying Yin Tsui ; Jie Chen
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Abstract :
Biological tissue healing has recently attracted a great deal of research interest in various medical fields. Trauma to teeth, deep and root caries, and orthodontic treatment can all lead to various degrees of root resorption. In our previous study, we showed that low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) enhances the growth of lower incisor apices and accelerates their rate of eruption in rabbits by inducing dental tissue growth. We also performed clinical studies and demonstrated that LIPUS facilitates the healing of orthodontically induced teeth-root resorption in humans. However, the available LIPUS devices are too large to be used comfortably inside the mouth. In this paper, the design and implementation of a low-power LIPUS generator is presented. The generator is the core of the final intraoral device for preventing tooth root loss and enhancing tooth root tissue healing. The generator consists of a power-supply subsystem, an ultrasonic transducer, an impedance-matching circuit, and an integrated circuit composed of a digital controller circuitry and the associated driver circuit. Most of our efforts focus on the design of the impedance-matching circuit and the integrated system-on-chip circuit. The chip was designed and fabricated using 0.8- ??m high-voltage technology from Dalsa Semiconductor, Inc. The power supply subsystem and its impedance-matching network are implemented using discrete components. The LIPUS generator was tested and verified to function as designed and is capable of producing ultrasound power up to 100 mW in the vicinity of the transducer´s resonance frequency at 1.5 MHz. The power efficiency of the circuitry, excluding the power supply subsystem, is estimated at 70%. The final products will be tailored to the exact size of teeth or biological tissue, which is needed to be used for stimulating dental tissue (dentine and cementum) healing.
Keywords :
biological tissues; biomedical electronics; biomedical ultrasonics; dentistry; radiation therapy; system-on-chip; associated driver circuit; cementum healing; circuitry power efficiency; dental tissue formation; dental tissue healing; dentine healing; digital controller circuitry; final intraoral device; impedance-matching circuit; impedance-matching network; integrated system-on-chip circuit; low power LIPUS generator; low-intensity pulsed ultrasound; orthodontically induced teeth-root resorption; power-supply subsystem; therapeutic ultrasound generating circuit; tooth root loss; tooth root tissue healing; tooth-root healing; transducer resonance frequency; ultrasonic transducer; Acceleration; Biological tissues; Circuits; Dentistry; Impedance; Power generation; Power supplies; Rabbits; Teeth; Ultrasonic imaging; Dental tissue formation; dental traumatology; low intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS); system-on-a-chip design; therapeutic ultrasonic device; tissue engineering;
Journal_Title :
Biomedical Circuits and Systems, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TBCAS.2009.2034635