Interproximal tooth cleaning operated by a tactile robot. An in vitro analysis.

AIM: New technologies such as tactile robots and artificial intelligence are about to find their way into clinical practice in dentistry and may contribute to the improvement of oral health care in the future. In this study we hypothesized that a collaborative, tactile robot programmed by a dental student removes interproximal artificial plaque as effectively as a human operator in an in vitro pilot trial. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Model teeth were fully covered with artificial plaque and set into phantom jaws. First, a robot was programmed by a dental student to perform interproximal cleaning with an interproximal brush. Second, teeth were covered with artificial plaque again and the dental student performed the interproximal cleaning manually. Both experiments were repeated five times. Residual plaque was measured with binary pictures. Surface coverage was reported and comparison of methods was performed with significance defined at a= 0.05. RESULTS: No statistically significant difference was found in the cleaning result between the robot and the human operator. CONCLUSION: The results of this in vitro pilot study indicate that a tactile robot with integrated artificial intelligence programmed by a dental student can perform interproximal cleaning as effectively as the dental student. Practical lmplications: In the future, the use of robot assistants to support oral hygiene, e.g., in patients with reduced motor skills or impaired vision may be further investigated.

First Contact, First Learnings - Nursing Staff Approaching Robotics in Health Care.

Systems for service and assistance robotics become relevant in nursing care. Workshops with target user groups can support the reflection and identification of scenarios for the use of robotic systems.

Dentronics: tooth cleaning with a tactile collaborative robot - an in vitro proof of concept.

AIM: The aim of the present study was to compare the performance of a tactile collaborative robot programmed by a dental professional (DP) with that of a DP in the removal of surrogate plaque in vitro. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Six typodont teeth in articulated jaws were covered with surrogate plaque and cleaned by a DP with the help of a manual toothbrush (DP/manual) and an electric toothbrush (DP/electric). The experiment was repeated with the help of a collaborative seven-axis tactile robot programmed by a DP handling a manual toothbrush (robot/manual) and an electric toothbrush (robot/electric). All experiments were repeated five times, resulting in a total of N = 30 teeth in each group. Cleaning results were reported as the percentage of surface area with residual plaque. RESULTS: The cleaning results of the DP and the robot showed no significant differences. However, electric toothbrushing was significantly less effective compared with manual toothbrushing (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The present in vitro study indicates that current robot technology may perform the removal of surrogate plaque as efficiently as a DP. In future, this may be helpful to release nursing staff from this time-demanding task that could possibly cause contagion or to support people with reduced motor skills or impaired vision in performing daily oral hygiene.

The endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol inhibits endothelial function and repair.

BACKGROUND: Endothelial dysfunction promotes atherogenesis, vascular inflammation, and thrombus formation. Reendothelialization after angioplasty is required in order to prevent stent failure. Previous studies have highlighted the role of 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) in murine experimental atherogenesis and in human coronary artery disease. However, the impact of 2-AG on endothelial repair and leukocyte-endothelial cell adhesion is still unknown. METHODS: Endothelial repair was studied in two treatment groups of wildtype mice following electrical injury of the common carotid artery. One group received the monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL)-inhibitor JZL184, which impairs 2-AG degradation and thus causes elevated 2-AG levels, the other group received DMSO (vehicle). The effect of 2-AG on human coronary artery endothelial cell (HCAEC) viability, leukocyte-endothelial cell adhesion, surface expression of adhesion molecules, and expression of endothelial NO synthase (NOS3) was studied in vitro. RESULTS: Elevated 2-AG levels significantly impaired reendothelialization in wildtype mice following electrical injury of the common carotid artery. In vitro, 2-AG significantly reduced viability of HCAEC. Additionally, 2-AG promoted adhesion of THP-1 monocytes to HCAEC following pre-treatment of the HCAEC with 2-AG. Adhesion molecules (E-selectin, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1) remained unchanged in arterial endothelial cells, whereas 2-AG suppressed the expression of NOS3 in HCAEC. CONCLUSION AND TRANSLATIONAL ASPECT: Elevated 2-AG levels hamper endothelial repair and HCAEC proliferation, while simultaneously facilitating leukocyte-endothelial cell adhesion. Given that 2-AG is elevated in patients with coronary artery disease and non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, 2-AG might decrease reendothelialization after angioplasty and thus impact the clinical outcomes.

Dentronics: Towards robotics and artificial intelligence in dentistry.

OBJECTIVES: This paper provides an overview of existing applications and concepts of robotic systems and artificial intelligence in dentistry. This review aims to provide the community with novel inputs and argues for an increased utilization of these recent technological developments, referred to as Dentronics, in order to advance dentistry. METHODS: First, background on developments in robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are reviewed that may enable novel assistive applications in dentistry (Sec A). Second, a systematic technology review that evaluates existing state-of-the-art applications in AI, ML and robotics in the context of dentistry is presented (Sec B). RESULTS: A systematic literature research in pubmed yielded in a total of 558 results. 41 studies related to ML, 53 studies related to AI and 49 original research papers on robotics application in dentistry were included. ML and AI have been applied in dental research to analyze large amounts of data to eventually support dental decision making, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment planning with the help of data-driven analysis algorithms based on machine learning. So far, only few robotic applications have made it to reality, mostly restricted to pilot use cases. SIGNIFICANCE: The authors believe that dentistry can greatly benefit from the current rise of digital human-centered automation and be transformed towards a new robotic, ML and AI-enabled era. In the future, Dentronics will enhance reliability, reproducibility, accuracy and efficiency in dentistry through the democratized use of modern dental technologies, such as medical robot systems and specialized artificial intelligence. Dentronics will increase our understanding of disease pathogenesis, improve risk-assessment-strategies, diagnosis, disease prediction and finally lead to better treatment outcomes.