Metallic

Gosh..didn't feel the need to blog for more than a year now. I am going through a ' metallic phase' in my life. All I could think of in my little head is little metals.
I wish I could say that I was inspired into this topic of dental implants.  Unfortunately, my explorations into this topic took me to a website of non-sense and since then I have been opening more and more can of disgusting worms. Although the start was non-inspirational, I felt the urge to write about couple of dental implant designs that caught my attention.
I have always been a keen believer in research and sometimes I can be adamant in finding answers to basic questions. A friend of mine texted me with a photo of his chilli pepper that was called Twilight. In all honesty it looked like an eggplant, purple in colour. In the back of my mind my curiosity began. How come a chilli is purple ? Never seen in this colour. I read and read and figured out that the anthocyanins determine the colour of the ripening fruit.The pH determines if the chillies will be purple, yellow,orange or red. As they ripen they go through a plethora of colours from purple to red just like Twilight.
With a similar curiosity in mind, I was exploring some dental implant designs. There are lot of implants that are backed up with extensive research work. I feel much confident in knowing all their advantages and disadvantages. Sadly, there are also different implant designs that have poor research work and yet finding their way in markets in Eastern Europe and Asia. The ethics of the practitioners placing those implants are also questionable. One dentist recommended that the best way to put an end to periodontal disease is to extract all the teeth and place implants. It is not a thought I could ever bear! Let the sadness end here..Moving on
If I were to name an 'implant of the day' it is the 'Expandable Implant'!! What I liked about this implant is that it has a 40month prospective trial done in Asia. It is designed in the US with FDA approval. It doesn't claim to do wonders. It is an implant that needs to be expanded with screws for the fixation. The design is called the 'Eiffel tower'. It can be used for immediate placement and loading. The trial showed microleakage , despite a double morse connection, causing bone loss but there is room for improvement and the implant is relatively easy to retrieve!! Such trials put my mind at ease because I know what to expect from placing that implant on a living being.
The second 'implant of the day' is the co-axis dental implant. It is probably the first threaded implant with angled prosthetic plaltform. This will come in handy to achieve aesthetic result.

Robinson R44-Helifly

It is the 4th of March  and the spring has sprung upon us. Yellow daffodils are in full bloom. The chilly wind is still prevailing but the skies are blue  with scattered grey clouds. I was ringing the pilot centre to see if someone can confirm if my 'trial tactical helicopter flying lesson' is going ahead or not. No one was able to return my call. There was an over night downpour and the weather wasn't particularly friendly for a new learner. I woke this morning to some sunshine. Fortunately, somebody finally picked up the phone and said that the flying lesson is going ahead as planned.

Every one at home thought I was just going for a ride in the helicopter. I clarified things and said that I am actually going to handle the helicopter myself and it a taster lesson I am going to try. It did surprise my other half and he said oh NICE!

I have to admit I did panic a little bit in my heart and could feel my heart racing. I drove to Denham Aerodrome, which is around 19miles from home. Weather was absolutely brilliant and I arrived well ahead of time before the check in.

I had the chance to see the CESSNA getting fuelled. There were a few CESSNAs anchored in the air field.

I got briefed about the controls of the helicopter I will be flying today. It is R44. The pilot tutor explained little bit about the cyclic, to control the nose and speed of the helicopter, the lever to control the altitude and the left and right foot pedals to control the direction.

After the briefing it was my turn to be on that very seat to handle the controls. As soon I sat there, I saw there was a whole plethora of other controls, which I was not briefed about. The pilot turned the engine on , engaged the clutch, and the blades started whirring. By this time, the BOSE headphone with speakers were on.

My goodness! Driving a car is one of the easiest things to do in life is what I felt. The controls on the helicopter were very tricky to handle. I was going nose down and rotating. It was stomach-churning and absolute fun!! I couldn't have asked for a better experience.

 In as much as adrenaline filled activity it is, I was mentally exhausted. I got my certificate for flying the R44. I opened the doors of my M-Sport saloon to drive back home. For a moment I looked at the gear stick and my head was still whirring from the helicopter ride. I said to myself, I will never look at the helicopters the same again!! Life in the skies is all about freedom but it is not without the complexity. The higher one goes finding the balance is lot more difficult. Attention and focus needed for helicopter piloting is absolutely crucial and so is not becoming motion sick.

Intra oral videography-'Camera Obscuras'

I embarked on a search to find a decent video camera that will enable me to capture close up footage of some of the intra oral procedures such as preparation of teeth for fillings and root canal treatments. The main idea is to record the procedure and show it to my tutors in order to gain feedback and also possibly learn from mistakes.

I had few options to choose from. The options varied from affordable to very expensive. As a student, I have a limited budget on how much I want to invest on such a device.

The options are
1. Head mounted or Mounted independently action cameras such as Go Pro Hero5 /Black or Sony FDR-X 1000 V
2. Loupe mounted cameras such as Futudent / ioCam/Loupe cam/MiniCam/Surgicam
3. Dental lamp/ Chair mounted camera such as Third Eye HD Cam with DVR
4. Integrated Dental Cameras into the Dental chairlight- Systems such as Elio Microscope/ G-Comm
5. Custom made Rage Cameras
6. Medically approved Cameras such as Sony DXC-C33 or Medically non approved Sony HXR-MC1 both of which are ideal but may have been discontinued by the manufacturer.
7. Ceiling mounted cameras.

My take on these cameras:

Go Pro Hero 5 is promising little gadget and comes with an ecosystem of accessories. It can be pretty much used anywhere with the proper accessories. It does deliver 4K videos and is wifi compatible. Its competitor Sony FDR-X 1000V has a better image quality than the Go Pro Hero5 but doesn't offer a variety of accessories. Price tag is around £400. They both can be mounted on the chair head light or handle. The Sony comes with a  useful full command Live-View Remote (wrist based) and multi camera control. (Android App). I don't think any zooming or magnification is possible on these cameras. I suppose a Go Pro accessory should  also be able to mount a Sony Cam.

Loupe mounted camera comes with a price tag of £1600-£3600. They offer fancy software and cloud storage.They also offer upgrade to wireless and are wifi compatible.  Some of them offer 2x to 3x magnification. They have the positive side of recording the video from the surgeon's view which can not be achieved in any other method but comes with the disadvantage of heat that can generated overtime, not to mention that any head movement will deviate the video from the field of vision necessitating time consuming editing with software.

I like the idea of chair-mounted camera such as Third Eye HD camera.  It comes with a price tag of £1600-£3000. They need minimal installation and offers limited zoom and needs a standalone video recorder which comes with an editing software. It is also handy if the dentist wished to project the video using a projector  or can transmit live on multiple screens.

Advanced integrated camera into the dental chair headlight is the one I will recommend for the future for any dentist investing on a brand new set up for the practice. They are expensive.

Go Pro camera  can be modified for dentistry and some some are sold by Ragecams on ebay.

I also like the Sony DXC-C33 and Sony HXR-MC1 but I am not sure if they are still available in the market.  The former records through a recorder and a telephoto lens can be attached while the latter offers 10x optical zoom and records on a memory stick. Medically approved camera are useful when the surgeon needs a sterile set up.

Buyers must be aware of the terms magnification and optical zoom. Both the terms can be misleading. For example a camera with 5X optical zoom is only a zoom ratio and will probably only offer less than 5times magnification (depending on the focal length). The key terms to look are megapixels and focal length.

ENT specialists, General Surgeons, Cardio thoracic surgeons are all using video cameras yet finding one to suit my needs is long -winded.

Ceiling mounted cameras are also useful but needs careful installation, handling and of course are expensive.

I can only imagine what expensive gadgets the moviemakers are working with. Really Impressive!!

I must admit sometimes I suffer from 'confirmatory bias'! At the end of all of this I am fancying the Sony FDR-X 1000V so that I can record my inventions in the Kitchen!

References:
 Google search for terms 'dental cameras', 'dental video cameras', 'loupe mounted cameras', 'surgical cams', ' action cams', 'chair-mounted cameras'