Noise-cancellation drill turns dentist from foe to friend

What are some of the most loathed sounds in your book? Is the dentists drill one of them? If the answer is in the affirmative, then check out this method on which scientists have managed to successfully develop, plugging a device into an MP3 player or cell phone while relying on a filtering technique to cancel out the noise of the drill – doing all of that while enabling you, the patient, to enjoy your favorite tunes over a pair of headphones without missing out on vocal instructions of the dentist. Sounds good (pun not intended) since studies do point towards the drill’s sound as the main cause of anxiety about visiting the dentist for most folks. Professor Brian Millar is the brain behind this idea after he drew inspiration from car manufacturer Lotus, which has developed a system to remove road noise. What we now fear? Dentists who offer this noise cancellation “service” will now charge us extra, as though they aren’t already billing us an arm, a leg and a tooth already.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Gadgets, Medical, Top Stories
Tags: noise cancellation