Dentistry Through the Years

There is no question dentistry has changed dramatically through the years. Technology has improved it by leaps and bounds. Steve Lundeberg illustrates this point in a recent blog post about his own experiences with dentistry. His colorful  post is both humorous and informative:

Our dentist in those days was a fellow named Elton Storment, and though he was actually a very nice guy, someone once removed the S from the name on his sign, leaving him to be known briefly as Dr. Torment; my sister Debby seemed to find that particularly amusing, so much so that I now wonder if was actually she who modified the sign. Deb, assuming you still read my blog every now and then, what do you have to say for yourself on the subject?

Anyway,  whereas nowadays dentists garb themselves up so much you’d think they were preparing to do brain surgery, back then the only difference, appearance-wise, between our dentist and any grown man in the waiting room was the smock the dentist always wore. There was certainly no mask or eye protection, and I don’t recall him wearing latex gloves.

Another key difference I’ve noticed between 1970s dentistry and now has to do with spitting into a sink; that is, you don’t don’t do it anymore. Instead, there’s that little vacuum cleaner attachment that you’re supposed to close your lips around so it can siphon away all of the debris-laden saliva. I really never have gotten the hang of that; always feel like a part of my mouth is going to end up torn off and hurtling through the tube.

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Calling Dr. Robot…

Will a robot be doing your dental work in the near future? If it sounds outlandish to you, you’re not alone. It sounds a bit out of this world. But will it ever happen? It never is wise to say never, but it doesn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon and not for the reasons you might think. It’s not that technology won’t be there very soon, because it will be. Artificial intelligence is moving at break-neck speed. But a robot will never (whoops, there’s that word) be able to give that personal assurance that someone is there with a human touch to make sure you’re alright. A robot won’t be able to display that same type of clinical judgment as a human doctor or dentist. Here’s an article that discusses this issue.