Science: Specifically... dental medicine

Post by **Coyote** » 2007-09-07 04:04pm

Not too long ago, I chipped a molar. Even posted about it in a Venting thread. Fortunately, it was one that was already dead, having been root-canal'd, and so I could have it dealt with fairly liesurely.

So I have my appointment yesterday. I'm expecting some time in the chair as I get a mold done, so a cast can be sent to a lab, where they'll make a replacement, and then I'll get called back to glue it in. So imagine my surprise when the doc starts jabbing me with Novocain.

Well, maybe this is all over the world now and I'm behind the times here in Boise, but this was crazy-new to me. He numbs my jaw and grinds down the tooth, and then puts in this funky laser measuring thing that charts out the dimensions of the tooth in relation to its fellows fore-and-aft, and gets an overhead picture of the stump.

All this goes into a 3-D computer graphic modeling program, and the computer takes the diameter, size, etc, and creates an image of what a potential tooth would look like in those parameters. A 3D image is made of a normal tooth.

Then, like an art program, the doc just went over the image and raised some of the valleys, lowered some of the crenellations, gave it some artificial wear to smooth it out and make it about the same size as the teeth next to it, also rendered on the model. Once it looked right, he saved the data and sent it to a funky machine along with a little half-inch square block of porcelain. Water jets spray the block as two robotic drill bits come out and grind away at the block, which he said could grind as fine as 5 microns (I guess a human hair is supposed to be like 100 or so).

In about 12 minutes, the drill bits have produced, out of this block, the tooth that was rendered in 3D. He fits it in my jaw, carves back a little more, etc, until it fits perfectly (only minor adjustments needed). Then he sprays it with an enamel and put it in a little desktop machine that bakes it for 15 minutes at 500+ C. It pops out-- glowing orange hot-- and he sprays it with air to cool it down.

A couple more minor adjustments to smooth it out, some glue, a couple minutes to clean glue that oozes out the sides, and then a tiny blow dryer to solidify it-- and that's it. The whole process took maybe two hours, total, and an hour later I'm eating lunch on a perfectly normal tooth for all intents and purposes. Not even any cosmetic oddity about it.

I'd no idea that dental technology had progressed like that-- an artificial tooth from nothing to eating in 2-3 hours. Has anyone else experienced science-fiction like results in modern medical tech?

SCRawl · Post by **SCRawl** » 2007-09-07 04:08pm

That does sound pretty slick, and no, I've never heard of such a thing. I've been fortunate enough to need only minimal dental care over the course of my life, so I'm hardly on the cutting edge. I have a cleaning appointment in about a month, and I'll ask my dentist about this when I see him.

Dooey Jo · Post by **Dooey Jo** » 2007-09-07 05:00pm

How much did that cost?

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2007-09-07 05:10pm

It sounds as if you're describing Cerec. It's a tad on the pricier side, and relatively newish, though it's been around since the early 80s. It's only recently becoming somewhat affordable, but if you can get it done you must have some damn good insurance.

Post by **Coyote** » 2007-09-07 06:42pm

Yes, a Cerex-- that's the name on the machine.

The whole thing cost $750.00. If I'd had better insurance they would have paid it, but as it is I have crappy cheap-ass basic get-by insurance, which considers this to be "cosmetic/unnecessary". So it was out of pocket.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2007-09-07 08:12pm

Has anyone else experienced science-fiction like results in modern medical tech?

One of my friends recently needed a bone-marrow transplant... only, instead of transplanting it from someone else, they used her own stem cells to grow new marrow for her.

We live in the future.

The Nomad · Post by **The Nomad** » 2007-09-08 03:06am

Geez, I'm a dental student and heard of this one briefly in prosthetics course

. Might be years before I even see one for real, nevermind use one

. When I think of how boring the wax-up technique is (the classical technique, in which a tooth is reconstitued using drop-by-drop dripping wax on a plaster cast of the mouth), this machine sounds like a dentist's dream made true.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-09-08 03:52am

What the fuck. $750. My mom getting a new cap costs four digits.

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2007-09-08 06:51am

Uraniun235 wrote:
Has anyone else experienced science-fiction like results in modern medical tech?
One of my friends recently needed a bone-marrow transplant... only, instead of transplanting it from someone else, they used her own stem cells to grow new marrow for her.

We live in the future.

Just a few days ago I heard about an operation on an open heart. The guy had a cancerous tumor inside his heart. He went under the knife (operated on by an American surgeon), and they took his fucking heart out to the table, cut out the tumor, rebuilt 1/4 of it with artificial tissue, put it back in and restarted it.

It was fucking unreal when I read it. He's feeling just fine now and can brag about living for two hours with his heart cut out and besides him.

PainRack · Post by **PainRack** » 2007-09-08 10:21am

Robotic surgery is now here, where a surgeon can be in an entirely different room and operate using robotic hands........... I wonder whether that means surgeons can now be outsourced?

Shrykull · Post by **Shrykull** » 2007-09-08 10:49am

Makes me wonder about dental medicine, will they ever be able to genetically engineer teeth that do not suffer decay, or be able to grow new teeth for you, or possibly make a person so they grow a new set of teeth every 10 years?

DesertFly · Post by **DesertFly** » 2007-09-08 11:09am

Shrykull wrote:Makes me wonder about dental medicine, will they ever be able to genetically engineer teeth that do not suffer decay, or be able to grow new teeth for you, or possibly make a person so they grow a new set of teeth every 10 years?

Forget teeth! What about the rest of the body? I'm looking forward to the time when they figure out how to turn on limb regeneration, or grow whole new bodies and transfer the minds!

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2007-09-08 11:40am

We may not be able to regenerate limbs just yet, but we're well on our way to having the next best thing.

Singular Intellect · Post by **Singular Intellect** » 2007-09-08 12:05pm

Drooling Iguana wrote:We may not be able to regenerate limbs just yet, but we're well on our way to having the next best thing.

That looks impressive, hopefully they keep improving the system.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2007-09-08 01:27pm

Coyote wrote:Yes, a Cerex-- that's the name on the machine.

The whole thing cost $750.00. If I'd had better insurance they would have paid it, but as it is I have crappy cheap-ass basic get-by insurance, which considers this to be "cosmetic/unnecessary". So it was out of pocket.

I have something similar in my mouth, but it cost a bit more, I think because they didn't have the machine on site at the dentists office and had to do the root canal as well. I can roll my tongue of it and the adjacent now that it's been in for a month and except for the top where the valleys and crenelations are a bit shallow, they feel identical. It's pretty amazing. Dentistry and medicine in general has made some amazing strides since our parents days.

FireNexus · Post by **FireNexus** » 2007-09-08 03:37pm

They are in the process of getting approval for GM bacteria that replace the existing lactic acid producers in the mouth, but that produce no lactic acid. This prevents tooth decay. Honestly, I'm wondering if that will increase the chance of fungal infections in the mouth, because it may be slightly acidic for a reason.

The Nomad · Post by **The Nomad** » 2007-09-08 06:55pm

The saliva contains antibodies and proteins (cf mucins) that can protect the oral cavity in addition to offering some buffer properties. Absence of salivation and immune deficit cause the fungal problems. Acidic pH does more harm than good.