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ePaper created 2018-02-16, 11:39:59 | version 1.38.0
NOVEMBER2017 A few years ago, dental school graduates of Japanese universities said that they lack clinical skills and experience in treating patients, so in order to solve this problem, scientists have created a 165 cm height patient robot. The skeleton is made of metal and FRP is used for the skull. The teeth in the model used for direct therapy training can be polished and can be easily replaced as in conventional “phantoms”. The artificial outer skin is made from a special vinyl chloride- based gum reproducing the form and sensation of the actual skin. The patient has a camera in an eye which has been successfully used to recognize and track trainees and instruments used during treatment. In addition, the voice recognition software is used for creating more realistic conditions to simulate an actual conversation with patients during training! In order to train students to react calmly to unexpected bleeding during surgery, the patient robot is designed to reproduce the effusion of blood. The main locations for bleeding in the oral cavity are regions inside of both cheeks and ranging from the surface to below the tongue. In addition to that, there is a fitted saliva mechanism. The patient robot is able to produce 7.7 [ml/min.] of saliva. To evaluate the trainee’s reaction for vomiting, the robot has vomiting reflex, which can start working when the uvula is touched. This patient robot was presented in Showa University in 2008 to evaluate for 32 members. 100% of trainees said that the robot was useful and nobody rated the performance of the patient robot as ineffective. 88% said that the effusion of bleeding was useful, though 25% said that the production of saliva was useless. The results showed the patient robot to be effective as a means of training students to respond to unexpected movements during surgical procedures. 1 In the future, more dental schools should definitely consider using patient robots instead of so-called “phantoms”. Robots reminded about themselves once again on September 16, 2016, in Xi’An City (China). A short video about the robot dentist which has carried out the first successful autonomous implant surgery by fitting two new teeth into a woman’s mouth has spread fast among all dentists in the world as a TOP new of the year. The robot dentist was developed jointly by the Fourth Military Medical University’s affiliated Stomatological Hospital, based in Xian, and the robot institute at Beihang University in Beijing over the past four years. Dr. Zhao Yimin, a leading oral rehabilitation specialist who works at one of the hospitals, said, “the robot combines dentists’ expertise and the benefits of technology.” It may come as no surprise that dental implantation is now recognized as the standard of care for tooth replacement, because of both functional and aesthetic results it provides. That means that science and technology have always sought the highest standards. Robotics could offer dentistry improved accuracy, predictability, safety, quality of care and speed of treatment. How does it work? ‘Firstly, the patient needs to take a CT (computed tomography) scan to acquire all the data of the patient‘s skull and jaw. Then data are stored through a special marking system so that the robot arm identifies the corresponding location precisely in the non-open space and finish the dental implant surgery. During the operation, the robot arm got into patient‘s mouth following the pre- set motion path. The biggest advantage of the robot is high precision with an error of 0,2 to 0,3 millimeters, which is much more precise than manual operation. It took the robot less than an hour to install two implants. ‘( Dr. Zhao Yimin, Professor in Fourth Military Medical University) 2 As can be seen, robotics in dentistry has a valuable impact for both doctors and patients even though they are not easily accessible in daily practice yet. We strongly believe that new generation of dentistry society has always to learn and improve their knowledge in the latest news. It is just the question of time when the robot will be one of the main contributors in dentistry world. References: [1] Hideaki Takanobu (2008). Dental Patient Robot, Medical Robotics, Vanja Bozovic (Ed.), ISBN: 978-3-902613- 18-9, InTech, Available from http://www.intechopen.com/books/medical_robotics/dental_patient_robot [2] http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/2112197/chinese-robot-dentist-first-fit-implants-patients-mouth-without-any-human https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bXnBto0NNo http://www.cctvplus.com/news/20170918/8061345.shtml#!language=1 By Greta Keršytė - Viktorija Aužbikavičiūtė - Mayank Kakkar. 14