Tuning in Teeth

Every so often a dental patient reports that a tooth has turned into a radio receiver, that one of his fillings is acting like an old-fashioned crystal set. Now dentists have devised a way of reversing the process: they are outfitting teeth to do the transmitting.

In an effort to learn what goes on inside the mouth when people chew, drink or swallow, Dr. Samuel Adams II, 28, and his associates at Rochester, N.Y.'s Eastman Dental Dispensary, have been bugging the bridgework of volunteers with tiny radio transmitters fitted into dummy teeth. Crammed inside each electronic tooth are a transistor, an induction coil, two capacitors, a resistor and a hearing-aid battery-- all miniaturized items developed by the Air Force. Once the radio denture is in place, the subject enters a Faraday cage, a metal-mesh enclosure that blocks out most outside electrical disturbances. As the subject chews and drinks in his static-free environment, his tooth transmitter gives out a signal every time two spots of gold on the chewing surfaces of two opposing teeth come together. In addition, a muscle-tension detector attached to the skin of his jaw is connected to an electromyograph. The signals from the chewing teeth and the muscle-tension record of the electromyograph are picked up by a receiver and recorded on tape before being translated into graphs. Some subjects have been wired for sound in their sleep, in hope that their late, late broadcasts may be helpful in studying the relation between teeth grinding and dreaming.

So far the chewing programs of 24 volunteers have been tuned in, and Dr. Adams hopes that his records will eventually aid his colleagues in telling if a bite is good or poor in real dentures. What reward do the volunteers get for their services? A piece of nonbroadcasting bridgework to replace their own missing molars.

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