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Robotics

Fully-Automatic Robot Dentist Performs World's First Human Procedure (newatlas.com) 53

Posted by BeauHD from the first-of-its-kind dept.
For the first time, an AI-controlled autonomous robot performed an entire dental procedure on a human patient, completing the task eight times faster than a human dentist could. New Atlas reports: The system, built by Boston company Perceptive, uses a hand-held 3D volumetric scanner, which builds a detailed 3D model of the mouth, including the teeth, gums and even nerves under the tooth surface, using optical coherence tomography, or OCT. This cuts harmful X-Ray radiation out of the process, as OCT uses nothing more than light beams to build its volumetric models, which come out at high resolution, with cavities automatically detected at an accuracy rate around 90%. At this point, the (human) dentist and patient can discuss what needs doing -- but once those decisions are made, the robotic dental surgeon takes over. It plans out the operation, then jolly well goes ahead and does it.

The machine's first specialty: preparing a tooth for a dental crown. Perceptive claims this is generally a two-hour procedure that dentists will normally split into two visits. The robo-dentist knocks it off in closer to 15 minutes. Here's a time-lapse video of the drilling portion, looking very much like a CNC machine at work. Remarkably, the company claims the machine can take care of business safely "even in the most movement-heavy conditions," and that dry run testing on moving humans has all been successful. [...] The robot's not FDA-approved yet, and Perceptive hasn't placed a timeline on rollout, so it may be some years yet before the public gets access to this kind of treatment.
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Fully-Automatic Robot Dentist Performs World's First Human Procedure More

Fully-Automatic Robot Dentist Performs World's First Human Procedure

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  • Crown preparation (Score:4, Interesting)

    by devslash0 ( 4203435 ) on Friday August 02, 2024 @03:17AM (#64674670)

    This is just a crown preparation procedure. I'd say it's an easy one because all the robot has to do is drill down the tooth to a certain shape so that it can hold the crown. We need robots that can do fillings, which are significantly more complex.

    • Many dentists are crooks or ignorant. In many Asian countries they xray the tooth and see if they can get away NOT doing a root canal, and fit a temporary plastic one for a few days. They tell you there is some risk, but $200 for a crown over there is better value. Some do better than original - double crowns, so you never have to floss. The use case for that is sometimes the little crown stump is compromised. A machine grinding the stump is easy - if it also can see or stop, if it sees other damage while

      • This is how I had it done here in the US, by an Indian dentist. More material had to be removed after the temporary went on. That was accomplished and the permanent went on as a temporary and then finally the tooth settled down and it was permanently cemented.

        • In Australia, root canals often cost more than the crown. The dentists here do not use the laser down an optical fibre to kill the nerve, but to the bent wire file thingy. Next they want to to a payment plan for you first. It takes a good one to decide you are a bad flosser, and to remodel two teeth to look cosmetically good, and do a double crown. I know German health funds often tell Germans to take a dental holiday elsewhere. That machine would do a better job with double crown preps.

    • We need robots that can do fillings, which are significantly more complex.

      No, we don't.

      I'm not a fan of a dental robot putting drills and lasers inside my mouth, I'm still trying to deal with a particular scene in the Dustin Hoffman, Lawrence Olivier movie "The Running Man"... ("Is it safe!")

    • What we need is more research, such as iirc is being conducted in Japan, to regrow teeth.

  • I have gotten quite a few crowns (Score:4, Interesting)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Friday August 02, 2024 @03:25AM (#64674678)

    As in roughly a dozen - my teeth are not great. And, on more than one occasion, during the prep it's turned out I wasn't completely numb and needed a second shot of anesthetic (and on one occasion I needed more than that - yeah, that was a joy).

    I hope the robot can recognize that I've raised my hand because the drill is hurting me...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by redback ( 15527 )

      yeah needs to have a button you hold to make it stop.

    • Where is the fun in that ?!

    • TFA says it's 8 times faster than a human dentist.

      I'd be willing to put up with a bit of pain for 1/8th the time to avoid the other 7/8ths.

    • Question if you are willing to entertain.

      Do your teeth have high cold sensitivity? Does ice cold water hurt! Like a lot.

      Asking because I have great teeth, and they like ice.

      My wife however, does not have great teeth, and she can't handle cold in her mouth.

      Once, when getting a root canal repaired, she was informed the neighbor tooth also need one... She got a discount because they didn't have to perform additional x-rays (yeah!...).

      My conclusion is that it's thickness of enamel. Makes sense on both parts

      • In my experience, things like acids and bacteria levels are directly correlated with tooth sensitivity.

        For example, if I get a squeeze of raw lemon juice in my mouth, my teeth, which are normally not sensitive at all, will become quite sensitive. Same thing if I go a day without brushing/flossing and bacteria builds up.

        Also, in a weird edge case, if I am out walking along roadways during a very cold (below 0F) winter day when it is dry and sunny, the particulate matter from the kicked up de-icing compounds

      • While I have had a handful of cold-sensitive episodes in my life, my teeth are not typically sensitive. And I like to chew ice too.

        On those occasions when I have a tooth that's being temperature sensitive, brushing with one of those sensitivity toothpastes (typically Colgate's) takes care of the problem after a few days.

        According to my dentist, when I have the issue it's because - my gums are not in great shape and have receded somewhat in places. This exposes parts of the tooth that aren't really protected

    • Don't worry; it will be over quickly.
    • yep, that was my thought exactly, because I, like you, have a bunch of dental issues and the nerves in my face were damaged earlier in life so if they inject the pain meds into my face in the 'normal' spots, well, then my eye gets numb and wouldn't move or focus, but I still feel all the pain.
  • it will simply do nothing and then hand you a fat invoice. Also, you have to pay in advance when you make the appointment.

  • Perceptive claims this is generally a two-hour procedure that dentists will normally split into two visits

    In what 3rd world shithole would this claim even be true? I have many crowns and not a single one took two hours and/or two visits to do.

    • Every one of my crowns has been a two part deal; They fit you with a temporary then get a permanent made to order. They need a week or so to manufacture (or outsource the manufacture of) the permanent crown. I think that these days it is becoming more common to have the equipment necessary on site to manufacture the permanent crown.

      • Re: WTF? (Score:4, Informative)

        by rayzat ( 733303 ) on Friday August 02, 2024 @10:12AM (#64675280)
        In my experience it's a 2 step process. The first part entails, making the temporary crown, grinding the tooth, molding the junction, then fitting the temp. This takes 90-120 minutes, most of which is waiting for temp molds to harden. The it's 20-30 minutes in a second visit to glue the permanent crown and do any final shaping and grinding to make sure you don't start cracking other teeth
        You can get the permanent made the same day. And while those crowns are generally solid the outsourced lab ones are generally better. So is it good today or better in two weeks.

    • Re: WTF? (Score:2)

      by kenh ( 9056 )

      I have many crowns and not a single one took two hours and/or two visits to do.

      Uh, how long does it take for your dentist to numb you? And are your crowns picked from Whitman's Sampler style box of crowns, or is one built-up "while you wait"?

      Your one-visit, less than 2 hour claim is non-sensical.

    • In my experience, I've gotten a temporary crown on the first visit, and the dentist sends out to get a permanent crown. The second visit is usually 10 minutes to pop off the temporary and adhere the permanent. I don't think you can make a high-quality porcellain crown in 15 minutes.

  • ... optical coherence ...

    Does that mean "laser", which means this robot uses LIDAR? It's not a big deal buy why avoid describing the actual equipment?

  • but can it make my gums bleed profusely by stabbing them and ask me when was the last time i flossed?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by zlives ( 2009072 )

      does it also take every monday and friday off and only work till 12 on other days? does it laugh profusely when you mention if saturday is an option as you have a job during the week?
      and tell us how much more does it cost.

    • Only you can fail your gingivitis/periodontitis test. The person with the tools is just measuring how badly.

    • Sure, but it doesn't enjoy it with the same level of excitement as a human dentist would.
  • What's the false positive rate? Does it go up when the machine detects that the dentist's payments are late?

  • Is it safe? (Score:3)

    by FictionPimp ( 712802 ) on Friday August 02, 2024 @08:35AM (#64674996) Homepage

    Is it safe?

    • I don't know, but now it's definitely not secret.

    • Is it safe?

      I don't know, but I've heard real people actually get their eyeballs restructured using laser beams so they can see without glasses. That's gotta be equally freaky.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bosef1 ( 208943 )

      You should take better care of your teeth. You have a...quite a cavity here.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by vivian ( 156520 )

        Yeah no kidding. After watching that video it made me want to go brush my teeth a dozen times, and mabey even floss once or twice too. Actually working as a dental assistant (My mum was an oral surgeon so I got roped into the job for a while) made me really appreciate taking care of my teeth. There's something about watching someone's crumbly rotten teeth getting scooped out with a tool that really motivates you.

        Jokes aside - one bit of advice my mum gave me: When you brush your teeth at night, rinse first

    • Are you talking to me? Is what safe? I don't know what you mean. I can't tell you if something is safe or not unless I know specifically what you're talking about. Tell me what the "it" refers to. Yes, it's safe. It's very safe. So safe you wouldn't believe it. No, it's not safe. It's very dangerous. Be careful.
  • burrrrr!

  • Old movies. Old movies like Marathon Man and Maximum Overdrive, mashed together to provide a scene guaranteed to make your skin crawl.

  • You're just an anti-dentite

  • A human can react to a myriad of problems that a software cannot.
  • Soon we will have fully automatic robot women to do all the stuff they do and fully automatic men to do all the stuff they do and even automatic robot children. Heck from there you might wonder what's the point of humans anymore!? But the real kicker, what if that already happened and we were the result?? ("Tan tan tahhh!" Sounds effects)
  • I had a crown two weeks ago, pre-molar. 2.5 hours, start to finish. They have a CNC milling machine that made my new crown in about 10 minutes, plus another 10 minutes for it in an oven after checking the fit. THAT was very awesome to watch!

    I found that quite an acceptable time frame. I could use hand signals to tell the dentist I needed a time-out to reposition (fused vertebrae in my neck) or if the assistant was pinching my lip (cotton bolster thingie took care of that). How easily can I tell the
    • If the outcome is the same I will take the one that is 1/8 the time to complete. Much of the discomfort comes from holding still for a long period. Also the half-life of the novocaine is pretty short so less time for that to wear off.

    • How easily can I tell the damn machine to shut off for a minute?

      Exactly as easily? Perhaps even more easily? Perhaps waving at the person supervising the machine? Or if there is no such human, perhaps you're given a nurse-call like thing to hold with a pause button? Let alone a motion sensor that can detect your hand waving?

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