VIDEO: Plasma may take all the pain out of getting a filling

Dan Seitz Contributing Writer, Tech

The dentist is one of those visits we’d rather not make. Not unreasonably: ask anybody if they want some guy they don’t know to drill a hole in their skull and fill it with metal. But if we don’t want our teeth to rot out of our heads, then we need to suffer through the pain.

Fortunately, as soon as 2013, painful fillings might be a thing of the past. And it’s all thanks to that stuff in your TV: plasma.

How? The University of Missouri has put the final touches on a plasma “brush”. What the dentist is doing when he jackhammers your noggin is roughing up the area around the tooth so that the filling will stick. This “brush” not only does a far more effective job of it, it also completely disinfects the area. Even better, the stronger bond with the tooth means that the filling lasts longer, and the longer it lasts, the less likely you are to need to have a tooth pulled. It’s even a faster process, taking approximately thirty seconds per cavity. Here’s a video of how it works:

So, when does this wonder tool come to your dentist’s office? If all goes well, you’ll start seeing them late in 2013. Finally, something in the future to look forward to!

New Plasma “Brush” May Mean Painless Cavity Filling [Gizmag]

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