In recent years, the link between dental caries and oral pH has been investigated more and lead to the development of tools to more accurately diagnose this dietobacterial disease. This disease starts with cycles of demineralization and remineralization of the tooth enamel. Dental caries is one of the most common diseases in the world but is reversible in its early stages. The critical pH for demineralization has been defined as 5.0-5.5, therefore a point-of-care device to help measure oral pH can be useful in early diagnosis and preventative care. To tackle this issue, we have developed a flexible tape-and-paper-based electrochemical device to measure pH. The devices are sterilizable, low-cost, easy to fabricate, disposable and versatile. The pH measurement relies on pH-dependent oxo-groups formed by the intrinsic defects on the carbon paint reacting with oxygen in the air to form. These redox-active pH-dependent species, such as ortho-quinone, allow the devices to measure pH using cyclic voltammetry.  The devices, both sterilized and unsterilized, showed a near Nernstian response across the pH range in commercial buffer solutions. They have also been tested in other solutions such as mouthwash and artificial saliva and show promise for oral pH measurements. A second prototype of these devices has also been developed, replacing the commercial paint on the working and counter electrodes with carbon paste to increase tunability of the carbon electrode material.

Electrochemical pH sensor using tape-and-paper for oral preventative care

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