During this technologically revolutionary procedure, there were human medical staff members present in the room observing, but none of them were actively involved while the robot carried the procedure out.

Before the operation, dental staff fitted position orientation equipment to the patient.

They then programmed the robot to move into the correct position to carry out the operation, and determined the movements, angle and depth needed to fit the new teeth inside a cavity in the patient’s mouth. They then tested these movements and collected data to make the necessary adjustments before giving the woman a local anesthetic and carrying out the operation.

The implants were fitted to within a margin of error of 0.2-0.3mm, reaching the required standard for this kind of operation.

The advantage of having a robot perform this procedure is that

• it could potentially avoid problems cause by human surgical error


• it could overcome shortage of qualified dentists in mainland China.

It was for these reasons that scientists in the Fourth Military Medical University's Hospital and the robot institute at Beihand University, Beijing, were compelled to invent such a robot.

According to Dr Zhao Yimin, a leading oral rehabilitation specialist, the robot combines dentists’ expertise and the benefits of technology. The artificial teeth it implanted were also created by 3D printing, he added.

Yomi

In recent years robots have increasingly been used to assist dentists with procedures such as root canal surgery and orthodontic operations as well as in training students. In March 2017 the US Food and Drug Administration approved the use of a robot system named Yomi designed to assist human surgeons when fitting implants. While that is a less threatening technological dental service which many dentists may actually wish to use, it is overall rather frightening how much robots appear to be capable of as time goes by.

Robots are being invented every other day to perform several different kinds of menial as well as more technical tasks which were previously only possible to complete manually. Although using robots to carry out human tasks would save industries, factories and even individuals time as well as money, several professions are beginning to worry whether their jobs will become obsolete in the coming decade or not.

Filling a need