The depiction of dentists in television programmes or on film is always a matter of interest and sometimes concern. How do writers, actors and directors see us and what does it do for our image? However, recent comment has centred more around the representation of teeth in historical settings. Actors in dramas such as Wolf Hall have been noted as having ‘reasonable teeth’ which seems fairly accurate as the Tudors had no access to processed sugar or food, These didn’t really start to play havoc with oral health until the Victorian era, despite reports that Queen Elizabeth I suffered
from caries.
A colleague who has a number of celebrities and performers as patients reports that one famous actress has repeatedly declined offers of tooth whitening. Her main character parts are in historical dramas and she doesn’t want either to jeopardise her chances during casting nor have her teeth messed around with by ‘make up’. An exception to every rule.
3D printing – the future?
The rise of 3D printing suggests that this might be the new kid on the block to whom we need to pay more attention rather than just ignoring it as the geek with a good idea and a test rig in his garage.
I see that the latest application, called the Objet260 Dental Selection will produce 3D teeth, gums and nerves for us to use when explaining procedures. The manufacturer describes the new printer as closing the loop in digital dentistry as it takes a file produced by an intra-oral scanner and turns it into a colour, multi-texture dental model. If we thought that giving a patient a print out of their mouth was like sending them off with a holiday snap, this next step has to be more like providing a souvenir.
There is no telling where all this may end. 3D printing of fillings and other restorations, implants included? Or possibly 3D printing of someone to smile, kiss and eat your food for you. The problem I can envisage there is that it could also 3D print new dentists!
All foreign now
Who knows, maybe we can use such technology in the future to transport ourselves? Although based on the experiences of one Welshman perhaps that might not be such a good thing. Taken ill while visiting relatives in Cambridgeshire the retired teacher from Gwynedd, Wales spent three days undergoing tests at the Hinchingbrooke
Hospital and was released with suspected gallstones.
Offered the chance to return for treatment he did, as the waiting time in Wales was likely to be longer, only to be charged £1,775 for treatment in an English hospital - because he was a ‘foreigner’.
With sophisticated dental practice software it may well soon be possible to charge according to postcode. So, with Manchester and maybe London in due course in charge of their own healthcare budgets any of us could be a potential foreigner if we stray too far.