"Dental Wii" could help folks with false teeth
First, there was Wii, a video game from Nintendo that let players control the action by moving their arms, and now there may be "dental Wii" - a prospect that may unnerve a timid patient with visions of dentists flailing about and wildly wind-milling their arms.
But don't ask for a double dose of Novocain just yet, because dental Wii happens in a dental lab, not in a dentist's office.
"Dental Wii" is a term coined by the customers of SensAble Technologies of Woburn, whose products include 3-D touch-enabled modeling systems that can be used to design partial sets of false teeth.
SensAble is now showing off this system at a midwinter dental-society trade show in Chicago.
According to SensAble, its products allow dentists to give patients sets of well-fitting replacement teeth in less time than older methods.
What happens is that a dentist takes measurements in a patient's mouth, and a technician in a dental lab uses those measurements to craft customized false teeth.
SensAble's dental lab customers sometimes refer to this system as a "dental Wii" because the technician is relying "on touch-enabled technology similar to virtual reality gaming," a SensAble publicist noted in an e-mail.
SensAble cites statistics that more than 50 million Americans get crowns, bridges, and partials each year so there is a potential that the system could catch on.
Tufts University associate professor of dentistry Dr. Ron Perry and South Weymouth dental lab owner John Orfanidis provided guidance for the creation of the system, SensAble said.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)
