Dental students in Japan have been using robots to hone their dental treatment skills. The DENTAROiD, as it is called, is a patient robot developed by robotic company tmsuk Co., Ltd. to allow dental students to practice dental treatment techniques as well as learn to handle common patient actions such as coughing, sudden head twitching, and vomit reflexes, for example.
And yes, like an actual patient, the robot will open its mouth when instructed by the dentist. In addition, students will be able to learn how to handle emergencies like arrhythmia and abnormal breathing, for example, in patients.
The DENTAROiD, which is a showa-hanako II robot, has a life-like appearance, complete hair, dilating pupils, and of course, a soft and fragile oral cavity with a tongue that moves in four directions. It even has a voice too which is the other key training feature of the DENTAROiD: practicing communication with patients before and during the treatment.
The oral component can be removed and the individual tooth can also be removed to be graded by the instructor using a machine. The student and the instructor can sit and review the work done on the tooth at the end of the treatment.
The development of the DENTAROiD started in 2001 and in 2014, the final product was announced and introduced to colleges in Japan, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and Turkmenistan. While DENTAROiD is not new news, the child version of the bot, aptly called Pedia_Roid, is.
The Pedia_Roid is a realistic dental patient robot that I thought will be even more useful because a child patient presents even more challenges as younglings don’t usually follow instructions well and tend to struggle to resist treatment. And yes, Pedia_Roid is able to replicate a child’s violent struggle on the orthodontic chair which is possibly the worst nightmare for any dentist.
Not only that, emotional expressions, changes in complexion color, pupils, and breathing sounds are also reproduced in detail on the Pedia_Roid. This allows for reproducing scenarios of patients going into shock, or convulsion. And believe it or not, this robot can also be used to train basic resuscitation skills – thanks to the presence of pulse and heartbeat.
Also incredibly, this child bot also supports chest compression, nail bed pressure test, and intravenous injection for the purpose of blood sampling. Like the regular-size dental patient robot, the child dental patient robot trains the dental students in conversation too.
tmsuk presented the pediatric patient simulator robot at the recent 2023 ADEA Annual Session & Exhibition (March 11-14) in Portland, Oregon. The DENTAROiD is also showcased at the ongoing 40th International Dental Show (March 14-18) in Cologne, Germany.
Meanwhile, you may learn more about the new Pedia_Roid HERE [JP].
Images: tmsuk Co., Ltd.
