A lock on the teeth to keep your mouth open: the controversial new weight loss device | Some have called it a “medieval torture device”

Researchers at the University of Otago, New Zealand, and Leeds, UK, invented DentalSilm diet control, a controversial device that restricts the opening of the mouth and allows only fluid intake. In this way, the creators explain in an article, the DentalSlim Diet Control would facilitate weight loss. The invention has already attracted criticism from users of social networks and health professionals who they called it a “medieval torture device”.

The creators of DentalSlim Diet Control explained that it is an intraoral device that a dentist places on the teeth of the upper and lower back and that limits the opening of the jaw thanks to two pins including magnets. The researchers said that user can open mouth only two millimeters -so he cannot consume solid food-, but that can talk and breathe.

Professor Paul Brunton, principal investigator of the study, Associate Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences at the University of Otago, said that “the device it will be an effective, safe and affordable tool for obese people“And that” it is placed by a dentist, the user can remove it urgently and can be placed and removed several times. “

“The main obstacle to successful weight loss is compliance and this helps them establish new habits, allowing them to stick to a low calorie diet for a while,” explained Brunton.

Scientists conducted a study and published their first clinical results in an article in the British Dental Journal (BDJ). As explained in the text, the first tests were carried out with “Seven healthy obese participants”, who used the device for two weeks and consumed a commercially available liquid diet.

Participants lost an average of 6.36 kilos – which is about 5.1% of their total body weight – and that they have “hardly ever” experienced any changes in the taste of food or had problems drinking liquids. According to the authors, all seven people were satisfied and motivated by the results.

However, they also stated that they had problems speaking, who felt tense and embarrassed “only occasionally” and they thought life in general was less satisfying.

Still, the researchers celebrated the results because “the device’s tolerance was good, promoting weight loss over a two-week trial period” and in this way, the DentalSlim Diet Control would become “a non-invasive, reversible, economical and surgical interventions “because, unlike surgeries”, it has no adverse consequences “.

“The good thing about it is that after two to three weeks of use, they can disconnect the magnets. Then they could have a period on a less restricted diet and then resume treatment,” Brunton said, noting that patients are given a tool to open the device in an emergency, but none of the study participants used it.

According to Brunton, DentalSlim diet control it would contribute to a gradual approach to weight loss in which patients must have the advice of a nutritionist for the effects to be sustained over the long term.

But both social media users and healthcare professionals have expressed open rejection of the use of this device and its approach because, according to them, promotes fat phobia and is “repulsive and dehumanized”.

Many people have pointed out that Similar devices were used in the Middle Ages to torture and that in the 1980s, the practice of close jaws surgically had become popular, but in many patients caused vomiting, risk of choking, gum disease and psychiatric problems arising from the experience.

“Maybe instead of developing torture devices, they could investigate how the medical profession consistently fails based on the outdated and inappropriate BMI (Body Mass Index) scale,” one user suggested. .