Computers are changing our world each day. We accept that apart from take off and landing, aeroplane flight is controlled by an autopilot. Driverless cars are today a reality but some way off universal acceptance and use.
Ziegler and Evans wrote in in their 1969 song ‘ In the Year 2525 ‘
In the year 6565
Ain’t gonna need no husband, won’t need no wife
You’ll pick your son, pick your daughter too
From the bottom of a long glass tube’
The world’s first ‘test tube ‘ baby Louise Brown was born just 8 years after the song was written in July 1978 . The computers on board Apollo 11 were 10 years ahead of any commercial computers of the time.
Medicine and dentistry is advancing today at an even more rapid rate on the back of the computer revolution.
The world’s first dental procedure without human intervention was recently (2017 ) carried out by a robot in China. We rely on digital X-rays, photographs, CT scans and 3D models to plan the surgical placement of dental implants .A bone graft created in a laboratory can be placed with the precision only dreamed about a few years ago.
Will robots replace dentists in providing dental care? This will happen when a robot can interact with emotion and empathy and build trust with the person on its care.
Who can predict when a driverless car will take us to a dental robot facility for treatment. Perhaps the future will see a dental robot arrive at our home on board a drone to provide dental care.
Perhaps there will be no need, as according to the song ‘In the year 2525’
In the year 4545
Ain’t gonna need your teeth, won’t need your eyes
You won’t find a thing to chew
Nobody’s gonna look at you
Until then please make dental care part of your daily life.
