Mini Robot Dentist Fits Inside Your Mouth To Precision Drill For Crowns
A research team at the University of Basel has developed a prototype robot that can automate dental crown preparations directly inside a patient's mouth. Known as the Miniature Intraoral Robot (MIR), this device could eventually cut down the need for multiple dental visits by streamlining how teeth are shaped for restorations.
Unlike a typical medical robot that relies on arms to work on a patient (that also needs to track and compensate for patient head tilting, swallowing, and shifting), the MIR is a much simpler machine the size of a wine cork—measuring just 43mm long, 26.4mm wide, and 27.6mm tall—and it mounts directly onto a custom, 3D-printed splint attached to the patient's teeth.
To achieve this small footprint, engineers separated the robot's mechanical components from its cutting tool. While the heavy motors and control hardware sit outside the mouth near the dental chair, flexible shafts, cables, and tubes transfer power...
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