Dentist's Drill Or A 3d Thrill
The Age
Tuesday November 8, 1994
What about an excursion into the world of virtual reality ... via the dentist's chair. Alan Sayre reports on the latest US trend.
AFTER getting a bird's eye view of what the dentist has planned, patients will be able to play video games or watch 3-D movies to get through the whine of the drill reverberating through their skulls.
The dental office of the future should provide a ready market for virtual reality, a concept in which people use computer programs and imaging hardware to experience a different place as if they were there. A different place is where a lot of people would rather be than the dentist's office.
The American Dental Association estimates there are 25 million to 40 million Americans who fit the profile of ``dental phobics" - those nervous enough to put off or cancel needed dental treatment. Dentists say that results in unnecessary pain and draws out what often would be simple treatments.
Many dentists have been providing headphones for patients to listen to their favorite music, while their open jaws are explored.
Virtual reality takes that a step further, providing relief for the eyes, as well as the ears. The key is a device, about the size of a small pair of binoculars, that fits over the eyes. It can be hooked into a video-game machine or a VCR.
The device can also show three-dimensional tapes that enable patients to experience the thrill of a downhill slalom or the feeling of looking down from a tall building.
Todd Sames, a representative with Patterson Dental, which is pushing the device manufactured by Virtual I-O of Seattle, calls it ``a home- theater big-screen TV on the forehead".
Only a small number of dentists now have the machines, but the number is expected to grow sharply over the next few years, Sames said while exhibiting his virtual reality process at last week's American Dental Association convention in New Orleans. The cost of the unit is $US699 ($A957).
Demonstrating the device at an ADA convention booth, Sames used Steve Martin's scene as a sadistic tooth-driller from ``Little Shop of Horrors" to sell the system's virtues to dentists who lined up for a taste of virtual reality.
``It makes a trip to the dental office a lot more fun," Sames said.
``Anything you can watch on TV, you can watch on this. We sold 40 units (in one day) and we feel this is the wave of the future."
Vision is not totally obstructed when using the machine; patients maintain peripheral vision so they can communicate with the dentist.
Along with the viewer comes stereo headphones for sound.
The system can also fit in with cameras dentists use to show patients exactly what oral problems they have.
David Nangle, a dentist from New York, said in-house monitors have convinced many a doubting patient that a tooth that isn't painful is a candidate to become an agony-producer. -- AP.
© 1994 The Age