Smart dental clinic applies RFID system

The Center for Dental Medicine is located on the entire fifth floor of the Columbia Vanderbilt Clinic on West 168th Street. Researchers transformed this 15,000-square-foot space into a prototype for the smart dental clinic of the future. The entire space is divided into 48 cubicles. Each stall has a custom dental chair.

Utilize a fully integrated RFID system to "track" all tags from the patient's wrist to the dental equipment. Blue Ethernet cables running under the raised floor carry information to a nearby server, which keeps track of which patient is in which chair, when and where the instrument was used, and for how long.

In this clinic, patients can first make an appointment online to start their own diagnosis and treatment services. The patient will receive a smart bracelet equipped with RFID technology for use in the subsequent diagnosis and treatment process. After wearing this bracelet, clinic staff can know where the patient is, which step in the diagnosis and treatment they are in, and can also obtain the patient's medical information. In traditional diagnosis and treatment procedures, patients may have a prolonged diagnosis and treatment process because the clinic or Hospital they visit does not have the patient's previous medical information. But in a smart dental clinic, that doesn’t happen.

The clinic's smart dental chair is equipped with a tracker based on RFID technology. The dental chair begins recording when the patient begins treatment with the dentist. Through data recording, staff can understand the waiting time of patients and the time of diagnosis and treatment. The RFID tracker on the dental chair can also interact with the patient's smart bracelet, read the patient's last preference for the dental chair settings, and then achieve a match through various adjustments such as the chair back angle.

There are six tethered instruments on each smart dental chair, and these instruments are also integrated with RFID trackers. The system can record everything, giving a comprehensive understanding of where the instruments are used and who is using them, when they were last disinfected, how long it took, and more.

In addition, cameras are installed on each dental chair to record every process of the surgery and share it in real time. The dental chairs in the clinic allow colleagues to analyze the entire process, or help other dentists analyze the diagnosis and treatment.

Clinics will also add facial recognition capabilities to the cameras in the dental chairs to further let dentists know when patients are experiencing stress or pain. This allows the dentist to know when a patient needs a break or what the dentist is doing is painful, even if the patient is unable to communicate.

The most exciting thing for dentist-phobic patients is undoubtedly their stress-tracking technology. Within the next six months, the clinic plans to equip 48 of its dental chairs with biofeedback systems. These systems will measure a patient's heart rate and oxygen levels during surgery.

Finally, the 3D milling machine equipped in the clinic can shorten the original two weeks of braces production time to 15 minutes. (In the past, the relevant data of the patient's teeth needed to be sent to the manufacturer, who would then customize it for the patient)

It should be noted that in the end, the clinic's high technologies may have more of an impact on dentistry than the patient's diagnosis and treatment experience. With all the data collected from patients during and after treatment, it can help improve the patient’s ability to care for their teeth. For example, if a clinic notes that a certain type of patient is more likely to experience complications during surgery than others, the dentist may use a different approach during treatment.

For now, smart dental clinics are just a precedent. The information director of Columbia University Dentistry told the news website Outline: "Our smart dental clinic has attracted interest from clinics across the country. You may not have to wait too long to experience the full-body relaxation treatment while lying on the dental chair. day.