Flexible Electronics‐Driven Intelligent Oral Healthcare Paradigms and Next‐Generation Preventive Diagnostics
Hongwei Sheng, Jinkun Hu, Qing Yue, Peiming Lei, Yichuan Mao, Qing Su, Jing Wang, Wei Lan
Abstract
Oral health is a vital component of systemic well-being, with neglected conditions potentially triggering broader physiological complications. Current challenges in dental care, including high patient-to-dentist ratios and costly treatments, underscore the urgent need for portable, cost-effective self-monitoring solutions enabling early disease intervention. This review examines how emerging flexible electronics are transforming oral diagnostics by overcoming traditional limitations. Prevalent oral pathologies and conventional detection methods are systematically analyzed before detailing the advantages of flexible electronic devices in maintaining oral health. Recent advances in flexible sensing technologies and their multifunctional systems applied in stomatology are summarized, focusing on device architecture, sensing mechanisms used, integration strategies, and practical application effects. Furthermore, due to the oral moisture-rich conditions and dynamic mechanical stresses, some key considerations and possible solutions to the environment and device structural design challenges for oral monitoring are presented. The coming decade will likely witness a deep convergence of flexible sensor networks with artificial intelligence (AI)-driven analytics and cloud-based health informatics. These cross-disciplinary innovations are projected to establish intelligent preventive frameworks that optimize early detection accuracy and therapeutic responsiveness in oral healthcare systems.