Want to eat less? Shrink your mouth

Trying to eat sensibly and not stuff ourselves is hard enough at any time of year. Trying to eat small portions from a holiday smorgasbord can be almost impossible.

Now, just in time to curb our holiday overindulgences, a dental device has been found to help people shed unwanted pounds by forcing them to eat less.

The appliance is inserted in the roof of the mouth, making the mouth cavity smaller so that wearers take tinier bites and eat more slowly.

Because it takes about 20 minutes for the brain to get the message that the body is satiated, people often overeat because they don’t feel full right away.

By eating more slowly, “satiety cues have a longer time to develop,” says Corby K. Martin, a study coauthor and psychologist at the Louisiana State University System in Baton Rouge. “But we’ve found it’s hard for people to train themselves to do this.”

The study tested whether the dental appliance could help participants make these behavioral changes. It involved 32 volunteers with a body mass index that ranged from 27 to 40, which is considered overweight to morbidly obese.

On the first day, the participants ate normally. On the second day, half of the volunteers used the tool during meals. Although they consumed 659 calories less and reduced their food intake by 25%, they still felt full.

“They ate far less than the control group but reported no increase in hunger,” says Martin. “The next step is to determine whether long-term use can affect body weight.”

The study appeared in the December issue of Obesity Research.