Dentistry has made quite a few leaps. When I was young fillings were metal. Now they are a putty that dries within seconds with uv light shine upon it.
Yup, and when I needed a new brace the dentist made a 3D scan of my teeth to have a custom one made.
I had the same for my last guard (to keep me from grinding teeth at night). The previous guard relied on a mold, which I swear loosened a filling that fell out a week or two later.
The tech is pretty amazing. They still need a drill though.
Also, braces are practically invisable now and 3d printed
Some are. My kid just got some in a few months ago, look just like what I had in the 90s
I had a kid on my school bus ask me what color of braces she should get.
That is curious. I wonder what type of 3d printer and what type of material
UV resin, basically, just super high resolution that makes it incredibly expensive (even the cheaper models used for quick check measurements by dentists cost $20k+ - that is, latest tech, brand new from manufacturer, before someone drops a link for a used unit from 2018 for 10 grand). But the sheer volume makes up for it, a single printer like that can be generating pure profit within a year.
Eh, I’m not sure about that. I have an Invisalign retainer and have been 3d printing for a few years now, and from the looks of it they just did a regular FDM printing of the teeth then vacuume-formed plastic over that. Having printed the same files myself (dentist was happy to give the scan to me), and seeing as the retainer has very visible layer lines on the inside (too thick for resin printing), that seems more likely.
“SmartTrack” material tm. They’re not very forthcoming about the technical details on their commercial website.
Plastic filling with ceramic particles in my case. I honestly don’t know which tooth it’s in anymore
Orthopedic surgeon:
*repeatedly pulls string attempting to start up a chainsaw*
My kid’s orthopedist had a saw that was a pizza cutter sized cutting wheel, and it stopped when it touched your skin. He demonstrated on his own hand before he started removing cast.
it stopped when it touched skin, or it didn’t cut the skin?
the cast saws that I am familiar with have an oscillating motion that is small enough that skin just moves with the teeth instead of being cut by them. a saw that had sensors to know when it touched skin seems unlikely.
a saw that had sensors to know when it touched skin seems unlikely
I’ve never seen it in a healthcare setting, but that kind of safety mechanism is already a thing in larger saws - some pretty impressive demos on the web. Iirc it effectively destroys the machine if it goes off, but most of us would rather buy a new table saw than lose a few fingers. …and that was the tech years ago, may well have improved since I went down that rabbit hole.
Saw stop still owns the patent afaik and has even stopped other similar techs from taking hold because the patent is so stupid generic… Iirc Bosch is one such alt that got shit canned. Last I knew saw stop was pushing for legislation to require the tech… Because they own the market.
See: Literally every woodworking YouTube ever created. They’re worse than Clash of Clans
That sounds correct, I think he might have explained it that way but I was too cooked by watching him use a cast saw on his bare hand to retain.
This is why https://youtu.be/Bx1AiQdMQro
While pulling teeth is still quite barbaric, replacing teeth uses quite a lot of modern technology. For example 3D scans and 3D printing are common tools in creating dentures these days
My dentist does a 3d scan in the chair and has a mill onsite that generates crowns in 45 minutes.
My dentist made impression for two front crowns and sent away to have them made. Meanwhile he made two temporary crowns in-house and glued them in. They looked and felt exactly like the ones that arrived two months later. I dunno.
Jealous, mine has to send out for crowns and it takes at least a week
yeah, he’s not cheap, but it’s such a HUGE advantage to walk out done. One appt.
deleted by creator
Source? I’ve been following the research and as far as I know it’s still wild growth
deleted by creator
Science is crazy
Mmhh getting a 403 error
Guess your healthcare agreement doesn’t cover that
Same. Maybe geoblocked?
It’s an article called “Human trials begin for drug that could let adults regrow teeth for the first time”.
Hope it gets approved soon (if it works and if safe). Thank you
They can get a 3d image of a featus by ultra sound but for some reason prostate exam is still a finger up the butt 👉
Unlike in the movies, doctors usually aren’t trained in sonography. Sure they could figure out how to scan a prostate, but they aren’t gonna go out and buy a fancy 3d ultrasound just for men over 45, and they aren’t going to become, or hire, sonogram techs.
And I’d rather take a finger in the butt than have to have another fucking appointment. No pun intended, but it’s one finger. Unless my doctor is Andre The Giant or E.T., I think I could handle it.
It’s because it’s right there and requires no special equipment to get the job done. I never really got why people freak out about a finger back there, you constantly pass fecal matter several times that thick through there. If they could fully check that a baby was ok safely with their finger they’d do it.
Because the fecal mater get out in a intended way, the finger does not
Honestly, I bet an ultrasound wand being smashed into your cold gel slathered taint probably wouldn’t be much better
If it’s simple and it works, then why change it?
There’s a blood test now. Maybe your doc doesn’t know about it. Maybe your doc has ulterior motives.
I had a tooth extracted a couple of months ago, and even though it wasn’t my first rodeo (brush your teeth properly, kids), I was still amazed at how barbaric the process is. The dentist was only just short of standing on my chest so he could properly yank at it, all the while shards of exploded tooth were flying around the room.
Fair play though, he did it quickly and cleanly.
shards of exploded tooth were flying around the room
quickly and cleanly
I…I think you and I have different definitions of “cleanly”. Also, please excuse me while I go and clean my teeth again!
Ever had a tooth pulled? The description does sound pretty quick and clean.
Have you checked your wisdom teeth? If they’re not in order then they might need to be removed.
Mine took more than an hour to remove. It had hooked ends so that made it difficult.
I had a fucked wisdom tooth out, and as he grabbed it with the pliers I heard it crunch and collapse on itself and the dentist went “oh…”
Which isn’t a noise you want to hear from a dentist, but again he did the job.
Not as extreme, but one of my kids had to have a cavity filled. He struggles with some sensory issues, so I was staying close by to help keep him calm.
Knowing what happens and seeing your kid’s tooth enamel getting drilled away are two… very different experiences. Like with you though, they were quick, clean, and precise!
My wife has had some bad luck with dentists.
First was the wisdom teeth. Still to this day unsure of if it was a result of the extraction, but immediately after she developed an abscess on her tonsils.
The abscess needed to be drained in the ER, it was so painful. And the draining was painful, too. Not like they got Novocaine there. And then she got her tonsils removed as a result.
Then last time she had an extraction, the tooth shattered below the gum line. Dentist had her for like three hours getting all the chunks out. Her jaw was sore for like a week, not only from the extraction but also from holding that damn position for so long.
I had two lower front teeth removed recently. A lot of twisting action to get them out!
Look up how hip replacements are done. They use a saw, drill and hammer. Like how they hammer in the metal into the femur. You hear the metal on metal sound. Ting ting ting ting. Literally a body repair shop.
I have some friends in orthopedics who refer to themselves as carpenters
Shit man I’m glad I’m not a surgeon.
Could you imagine having to take 3 or 4 trips to Home Depot while your patient is just lieing on the bed, passed out and split open?
I hear there is that teeth re-growing biotech coming,
Been hearing that for decades now. I’ll believe it when I can access it.
i have dental connections. what i understand is there are two different things to watch. there’s a treatment that might be able to get your own body to grow another (final) set of teeth. theoretically humans can grow 3 sets, we stop at the second. that’s in the works, sounds pretty painful. the other treatment is something that can regrow dentin or enamel or i can’t remember it’s been a while, but the one they’d be excited about is enamel so it’s probably that? IIRC they both were coming out of South Korea, one in phase 1 trials and one still in animal trials.
this is me trying to remember off a conversation with my deceased dad’s friend a couple months ago, so take it with a heaping heap of heaps of salt. my memory ain’t all that great anymore.
I complained to my mother that the new dentist hurt me. She said I was being over-dramatic. Months later, she went to him and told me that he hurt her. No acknowledgment that I’d complained of the same. Teenager, obv.
And my mechanic is less pushy than any dentist I’ve ever visited. They always seem to pull up some image and point to it and say see that out of focus area? Your particular insurance covers that, so your teeth will fall out next week if we don’t address it right now, and youll never get laid again, you’ll fail out of school and get fired from your job and be homeless. Oh - wait. You’re insurance doesn’t cover that? Then they wipe the grease stain from the screen and say you’ll be just fine.
Never trust a medical profession that hasn’t changed their standard techniques since the Dark Ages. And it also explains why they didn’t join medical doctors in the AMA and created their own ADA with hookers, cocaine and blackjack.
Look, I hate them too, but they aren’t Bender. Don’t hold them to a standard that’s impossible.
Omg, did it just take my >20y to associate Bender with drinking on a bender? I’m so stupid.
The dentist I use now is also a maxillofacial surgeon.
She discovered that my previous dentist was completely ignoring issues that would have left me toothless, lose part of my jaw, and even kill me with meningitis.
And the guy had made a TAC that clearly showed it all. Dude was laser-focused on getting just implants and more implants to rack those bucks, let tooth repair be damned.
I was lucky that the infection was kept perfectly isolated for years in a granuloma, because my freakishly high pain threshold kept me from noticing it at all.
I’m not going to a ‘dentist’ who just studied ‘dentistry’ ever again.
You want a laser in your mouth?
There are many uses for lasers in dentistry. And also other reasons (e.g. amygdalotomy).
I had a laser in my mouth about 6 months ago. They vaporized (a lot of) a frenulum rather than just cut it.
The worst bit was how they had to lift my upper lip and it was up against my nose so I couldn’t breathe normally.
Dentists sometimes really feel like they are mouth mechanics
Wait till you hear about orthopedic surgery
Yeah… Watching spinal surgery can be gnarly. There’s a procedure to debris the spinal column before you install hardware called spinal flossing. You basically get a shop towel and wrap it around the spine and shimmy the towel like you’re cleaning a bowling ball.
I saw a video of a knee implant extraction, and it was just one doctor hammering the living fuck out of the implant until he got tired and gave the hammer to the next doctor.
My dad had a recall on a hip implant so they cracked his femur open longways to get it out. Still has better mobility than pre-surgery.
Edit https://youtu.be/mJc5SBFuSHQ?is=6Y4vWxH9njZVfjH5
It wasn’t an implant that got stuck just a thingy
What the fuck
Yeah, orthopedics is pretty much shop class but with more expensive tools and hardware. Bones are a lot tougher than what most people tend to think, so sometimes you just have to wack on the hardware with a big mallet to get them to release.
I mean it’s good, right? Bones SHOULD be stronger than wood
Yeah, it’s a little stronger than reinforced concrete. Looks like they’re trying to remove some old hardware that’s been fixed in place by some osseointergration.
They make slide/slam hammers for this kind of work that makes it a lot easier and safer for the pt, but looks like they didn’t have one, or didn’t think they’d need it and didn’t/forgot to prep one.
Bones are wood glue
Well the x-rays have gotten much better. Don’t really need the lead vest anymore.
