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Plasma Needle to Replace Dentist's Drill
dylanduck writes "From the New Scientist Tech article: "Sticking a needle with a flaming plasma tip into your mouth may not at first strike you as much of an improvement on conventional dentistry. However, the plasma needle, which is cold and painless to the touch, could be just the panacea we have been waiting for.""
To me, it seems like the pain involved with getting cavities filled is due to the high frequency vibrations caused by the drill, not the actual drilling itself. While I have my reservations about having a plasma tip stuck into my mouth, I guess I'd be willing to give it a go.
Of course, I don't plan on having any more cavities, so...
"You will pay for your lack of vision..." - Emperor Palpatine to Ray Charles
This "plasma needle" apparently will be good at killing bacteria and surgical cuts. It does use Nitric Oxide to function however, which is poisonous to inhale.
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
Will it still have that "WHIIIIIRRRRR" sound?
:).
That is most likely the number one most feared sound in America. Not a police siren. Not a gun shot. Not a cry of pain. The dentist's drill.
As a kid, there was nothing like that sound to make me remember to brush my teeth (well, for a few days, at least.)
Even as an adult, the sound makes me cringe whenever I go to the dentist (which, granted, hasn't been for a few years
My last trip to the dentist involved driling and excising my 3rd right molar from my upper set of teeth. Needles don't bother me (hell I count how many times they have to poke and inject me just to gauge how much of a tolerance I've built up to such anesthetics,) nor does having to suck gas or hearing the whine of the drill. What does bother me, is that my teeth, even when decaying, are rather strong. The drill bit broke in my mouth without the dentist realizing it. She went right on ahead with a broken drill in my mouth to remove my tooth. A week later, while in Texas on vacation, I take a drag off of a cigarette, and something moves around in the cavity where the tooth once existed. A little fishing around with my tongue in the hole, and out comes the broken drillbit. Do you knwo what those things look like under a microscope? Imagine an allen wrench - now grab both ends and twist until it spirals. Sharpen the edges, THEN SERRATE them. That is what these drill bits look like.
Sorry for the story - but it's about damned time we had drill-less drilling/dentistry. And without heat, we're fairly well-set on the way to needing less anesthetics in this field of medical science. GO PLASMA!!!
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
A friend of mine in dentistry tells me that general medical technology that can't find a market sometimes gets rebranded as dental solutions. Lasers were the example he studied.
Innovation makes enemies of all those who prospered under the old regime... -- Machiavelli