Slashdot Mirror
Using RFID Tags to Make Teeth
Roland Piquepaille writes "If you live in France, and soon elsewhere in Europe and in the U.S., and if you need a dental prosthesis, chances are good that RFID tags are involved in the manufacturing process, according to this article from the RFID Journal. The tag is embedded by the dental lab in the cast which will be used to make the prosthesis. Then it is used to record the whole history of the crown, a process requested by a European sanitary regulation. Before delivering the bridge to your dentist, all the data is copied to a smart card that will be given to you. The company is also studying the idea to put directly the tag inside the prosthesis. Maybe one day, when your dentist installs your new bridge, you'll also be the owner of a deactivated RFID tag inside it. This summary contains more details and a picture of the RFID tag used to record the life of your next crown."
RFID is for tracking things. Prosthetics (of any type) need to be tracked closely, since they're essentially unique to their intended recipient. If you happen to be someone waiting for one, you want it as quickly as possible. Anything that makes the process more efficient is a good thing for the patients.
I know this is some slashdot "the gummit is comin to git us" FUD, as well as Roland Piqopiles contractualy daily blogvertisement, but get the hell over it.
If you're so afraid, start brushing your teeth and flossing.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Before delivering the prosthesis to the dentist, the lab retrieves the data contained in the die's RFID chip and copies to a smart card also fitted with a PicoPass chip. The dentist can then pass on to the patient. "The advantage of such a card is that if a patient requires another prosthesis for other teeth at another stage in his life, he can present it to the practitioner, who will retrieve all the data related to all the prostheses of the patient," says Cachia.
Is it an RFID chip or a "smart chip"? Why would you "copy the data" from an RFID chip to a smart card? Isn't an RFID chip simply a form of serial number? If they're really just copying the data associated with that number, does that mean that RFID Journal writers aren't really familiar with what's going on?
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
Maybe one day, when your dentist installs your new bridge, you'll also be the owner of a deactivated RFID tag inside it.
You just couldn't restrain yourself from adding that onto the article summary, eh? I'm not trying to troll but that is absolute FUD and fear-mongering.
I mean, what is it with you guys? I use RFID all the time in a system I've developed to track employees. Nothing about this can be construed as bad but yet you still spin it somehow or another.
We use them in our employee badges and have scanner points at all major doorways of the building. It helps us track when employees are in areas that are containing overly sensitive material and when employees just go goof off which a great many do.
RFID only makes life better and I don't see how any of you can say otherwise.
Now RFID in teeth? That is absolutely FUD. You know it will never happen but you just want to provoke some sort of knee-jerk reaction from the masses. These sort of comments don't belong to be with the article summary on the frontpage.
No, not to me.
And if you ever need a prosthetic, make sure they track it the old way, with a little piece of paper with your name on it taped onto the cast.
Then when you show up for your fitting, and they try to jam the wrong prosthetic into your face, maybe you'll see that a more accurate method of tracking may actually be a good thing.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
honest we deactivated it and aren't using them for tracking people.....honest.
:-)
Great, so I'll have no choice in carrying an RFID around (de-activated or not).
pass the soup
Forgetting the practicality of the 'ID in a tooth' for just a moment, your example doesn't hold water.
Tracking employees with their consent while on *company property* is NOT the same as tracking individual citizens as they enter stores or just walk down the street minding their own business...
It is not the technology that is the problem or its proper use.. its the fact it opens so many doors for improper use that is the issue.
You don't technology will be used improperly? Get your head out of the sand and look around..
And no, its not a matter of 'well I'm doing nothing wrong' it's a matter of 'its not anyone's business'....
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Who is this person, and why must all of his submissions point to his weblog? He has submitted many articles to nanodot as well, for some reason.
Granted, the original post got some of the facts wrong, but the knee-jerk reactions here are bothering me.
Having had more than my share of experiences within the health system lately, I'd gladly accept the risk of being bleeped by a yahoo on the street to reduce the very real risk of misdiagnosis in an emergency room. If I need to go into the emergency room, I want the team to know in less than a minute the make, model, and date of manufacture of any prosthetics I have implanted, cross-indexed with any reports of trouble with those specific prosthetics.
Seriously folks, there are occasions when being able to instantly identify an object by waving a wand within 6 inchs is a good thing.
But why do you think you're important enough for them to care about?
I've always considered that response as a red herring... Technically true that, right at this moment, no government or corporation cares about me enough to follow my every move.
That doesn't mean such information can't hide in a database somewhere for 50 years, until I decide to, I don't know, run for president or apply for a mortgage or something like that.
"Records clearly show that the defendant came within 10 feet of a known terrorist leader on two occasions, once in Times Square, and once on the Boston subway."
"Gee, we'd love to offer you insurance, but tracking data shows that on June 15th, 2007, you exceeded the posted speed limit by 1500mph, strangely vanishing from Newton, MA, to a number of points in Southern France over a period of 47 seconds. Oh, and as much as we hate to do this, well, you know the "mandatory incrimination" laws and all, so a customs agent waiting outside would like a word with you..."
No one cares about me now. But someone tracking me in realtime doesn't concern me nearly as much as, say, an overly-zealous DA grasping at straws to close a particularly irksome unsolved crime ten years down the road.