 |
Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
 |
Autonomous Robotic Dentist - Would You Say 'Ahhh'?
Perceptive has an autonomous robotic dental system that can perform extensive procedures in fewer steps. You may change your mind, depending on how you answered the question posed in the title.

(Robotic autonomous dentist)
The entry point for the robot is crown installation, where the top part of a tooth is replaced with an artificial cap (the crown). This is an incredibly common procedure, and it usually happens in two phases. First, the dentist will remove the top of the tooth with a drill. Next, they take a mold of the tooth so that a crown can be custom fit to it. Then they put a temporary crown on and send you home while they mail the mold off to get your crown made. A couple weeks later, the permanent crown arrives, you go back to the dentist, and they remove the temporary one and cement the permanent one on.
With Perceptive’s system, it instead goes like this: on a previous visit where the dentist has identified that you need a crown in the first place, you’d have gotten a scan of your tooth with the OCT imager. Based on that data, the robot will have planned a drilling path, and then the crown could be made before you even arrive for the drilling to start, which is only possible because the precise geometry is known in advance. You arrive for the procedure, the robot does the actually drilling in maybe five minutes or so, and the perfectly fitting permanent crown is cemented into place and you’re done.
(Via IEEE Spectrum.)
An early mention of the idea of a robotic dentist can be found in science fiction author Cyril Kornbluth's 1952 short story Make Mine Mars:
It was a couple of front rooms on the second floor, with a mechanical dentist below, an osteopath above, and a “ride-up-and-save” parka emporium to the rear.
(Read more about the mechanical dentist)
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 7/22/2024)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.
| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )
Related News Stories -
("
Robotics
")
Artificial Skin For Robots Is Coming Right Along
'... an elastic, tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.' - Harl Vincent (1934)
Robot Guard Dog On Duty
I might also be thinking of K-9 from Doctor Who.
Wearable Artificial Fabric Muscles
'It is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases actuated by a sort of sham musculature...' HG Wells, 1898.
Dancing Robots Taught Dance Moves
'A clockwork figure would be the thing for you...' Jerome K. Jerome, 1893.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
|
 |
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
The Zapata Air Scooter Would Be Great In A Science Fiction Story
'Betty's slapdash style.'
Thermostabilized Wet Meat Product (NASA Prototype)
There are no orbiting Michelin stars. Yet.
Could Crystal Batteries Generate Power For Centuries?
'Power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice'
India Ponders Always-On Smartphone Location Tracking
'It is necessary... for your own protection.'
Amazon Will Send You Heinlein's Knockdown Cabin
'It's so light that you can set it up in five minutes by yourself...'
Is It Time To Forbid Human Driving?
'Heavy penalties... were to be applied to any one found driving manually-controlled machines.'
Replace The Smartphone With A Connected Edge Node For AI Inference
'Buy a Little Dingbat... electropen, wrist watch, pocketphone, pocket radio, billfold ... all in one.'
Artificial Skin For Robots Is Coming Right Along
'... an elastic, tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'
Robot Guard Dog On Duty
I might also be thinking of K-9 from Doctor Who.
Wearable Artificial Fabric Muscles
'It is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases actuated by a sort of sham musculature...'
BrainBridge Concept Transplant Of Human Head Proposed
'Briquet’s head seemed to think that to find and attach a new body to her head was as easy as to fit and sew a new dress.'
Google's Nano Banana Pro Presents Handwritten Math Solutions
'...copy was turned out in a charming and entirely feminine handwriting.'
Edible Meat-Like Fungus Like Barbara Hambly's Slunch?
'It was almost unheard of for slunch to spread that fast...'
Sunday Robotics 'Memo' Bot Has Unique Training Glove
'He then started hand movements of definite pattern...'
Woman Marries Computer, Vonnegut's Dream Comes True
'Men are made of protoplasm... Lasts forever.'
Natural Gait With Prosthetic Connected To Nervous System
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain...'
More SF in the News Stories
More Beyond Technovelgy science news stories
|
 |