Couple flossing their teeth together. PeopleImages/iStock
In today’s fast-paced world, chronic stress has become a silent epidemic.
It drives long-term health issues ranging from cardiovascular disease and immune dysfunction to depression and anxiety.
Adults balancing work, relationships, finances, and caregiving often carry stress for years without realizing its biological toll.
Central to this response is cortisol, a hormone commonly referenced in social media wellness trends but often misunderstood.
While influencers loosely toss around cortisol as a buzzword, in medical science, it carries serious weight, offering a measurable window into how stress physically affects the body.
Tracking cortisol levels could unlock more informed decisions about health, but current tools rely heavily on subjective self-reports or expensive medical diagnostics.
Now, engineers at Tufts University have developed an alternative that’s simple, affordable, and seamlessly blends into a daily habit: dental floss.
A daily habit turned into a diagnostic tool
Sameer Sonkusale, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Tufts, led the team that developed the floss-based sensor.
The device, which looks like a regular floss pick, can measure cortisol levels in saliva.
“It started in a collaboration with several departments across Tufts, examining how stress and other cognitive states affect problem solving and learning,” said Sonkusale.
“We didn’t want measurement to create an additional source of stress, so we thought, can we make a sensing device that becomes part of your day-to-day routine? Cortisol is a stress marker found in saliva, so flossing seemed like a natural fit to take a daily sample.”
The sensor works through capillary action. Saliva moves through the dental floss and into the pick handle, then spreads across a set of electrodes that detect cortisol levels.
How the sensor detects cortisol
The breakthrough lies in how the sensor identifies cortisol.
The team used a technology called electropolymerized molecularly imprinted polymers (eMIPs), first developed nearly 30 years ago.
The process involves building a polymer around a molecule of cortisol. Once the cortisol is removed, the polymer retains a “mold” of its shape.
That mold can then selectively capture new cortisol molecules as they pass through.
The dental floss pick has a sensor that can assess stress levels. Credit – Atul Sharma and Nafize Ishtiaque Hossain/Tufts University
These molds are chemically precise and cost-effective. They also don’t need the expensive development required for antibody-based sensors.
The technology is flexible.
The dental floss sensor can be modified to detect other saliva-based biomarkers, such as estrogen, glucose, or even cancer indicators.
Researchers are also exploring ways to detect multiple molecules at once for more complete health tracking.
Not for diagnosis, only ideal for tracking
While promising, the sensor isn’t meant for diagnosis. Blood remains the standard for that. But for ongoing health monitoring, the floss sensor may become a useful tool.
“For diagnostics, blood is still the gold standard,” Sonkusale noted.
“But once you are diagnosed and put on medication, if you need to track, say, a cardiovascular condition over time to see if your heart health is improving, then monitoring with the sensor can be easy and allows for timely interventions when needed.”
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
The team is now working on launching a startup to bring the floss sensor to market.
The study is published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.
0COMMENT
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aamir Khollam Aamir is a seasoned tech journalist with experience at Exhibit Magazine, Republic World, and PR Newswire. With a deep love for all things tech and science, he has spent years decoding the latest innovations and exploring how they shape industries, lifestyles, and the future of humanity.
MasterCard
