Design and Evaluation of Novel Bite Block for Invasive Imaging Procedures

Commercially available bite blocks used for invasive imaging procedures have design limitations, including bulky profile, being made of hard plastic that may damage surrounding tissue, and tendency to dislodge. We designed a novel bite block to address these limitations and evaluated this bite block in 50 patients undergoing diagnostic or intraprocedural transesophageal echocardiography examinations. Nine of 11 (82%) imagers who used the redesigned bite block preferred it over the standard bite block used at our institution. The novel bite block is an alternative device to standard bite blocks that was redesigned to protect both the patient and probe.