What’s the Latest Weight-Loss Device Sparking Outrage?
Researchers hoping to combat “the global obesity epidemic” are facing backlash after their solution to the problem—a magnetic device that stops people from opening their mouths wider than two millimeters—was hailed as deeply problematic by social media critics.
On Monday, the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand issued a press release about the device. According to the release, the researchers worked with a U.K. team to develop the new weight-loss tool. As they reported, the “DentalSlim Diet Control,” is “an intra-oral device fitted by a dental professional to the upper and lower back teeth” that “uses magnetic devices with unique custom-manufactured locking bolts.” They added that “it allows the wearer to open their mouths only about 2mm, restricting them to a liquid diet, but it allows free speech and doesn’t restrict breathing.”
The researchers said that in their trial of the DentalSlim Diet Control, the results of which were published in The British Dental Journal, participants “lost an average of 6.36kg [14.02 lbs] in two weeks and were motivated to continue with their weight loss journey.”
Excerpted from Newsweek
