Development of Mirror Biosensor in Saliva pH Measurement in Health Services

The Indonesian population suffers from oral and dental problems, with caries being the main problem. One of the contributing factors is salivary pH imbalance. Salivary pH measurement can help in the prevention and treatment of teeth, with conventional methods such as litmus paper and pH strips, as well as the latest technology such as pH meters, but the drawback of pH meters is that the measurement is still outside the oral cavity. To improve measurement efficiency, a mirror biosensor was developed that combines a pH sensor with a mouth glass, allowing measurement directly in the oral cavity without requiring a large volume of saliva. This study uses the Research and Development (R&D) method which involves the stages of information gathering, product design, expert validation, and product trials. The research respondents were patients who visited Nadira Dental Clinic as many as 50 respondents. The data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon statistical test to assess the effectiveness of the developed tool. The results showed that there was no significant difference between the results of salivary pH measurements using a pH meter and mirror biosensor with an average salivary pH measurement result in the control group of 6.49, while in the intervention group it was 6.52 with a p-value of 0.058 (p > 0,05). The development of a mirror biosensor tool is effective and feasible to use in measuring salivary pH. This innovation has the potential to be a solution for dental health services in improving time efficiency in measuring salivary pH.