DT News - India - Clinicians can now “see” a patient’s pain in real time using advanced technology

Dental Tribune International

Thu. 11 July 2019

save

ANN ARBOR, Mich., U.S.: One of the biggest challenges in clinical dentistry is pain management during even the simplest of procedures. In a recent study, researchers from the University of Michigan (UM) have created a technology to overcome this challenge. Their innovation involves special augmented reality glasses through which clinicians can “see” and map a patient's pain in real time. The researchers consider this innovation as the first step in the advancement of pain management technology, although it may still take some more years to get integrated into dental practices.

The innovation is called CLARAi - Clinical Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence, which allows clinicians and researchers to intuitively see, in real-time, how their patient's pain levels are responding to treatment. The Augmented Reality and advanced sensor technology enables the clinicians see inside a patients brain and "visualize" the pain intensity and location using Deep Learning AI. The technology uses neuroimaging to combine visualization with brain data and helps the clinicians to navigate through a patient’s brain.

“It’s very hard for us to measure and express our pain, including its expectation and associated anxiety,” said Dr. Alex DaSilva, associate professor at the UM School of Dentistry and Director of the Headache and Orofacial Pain Effort Laboratory.

The researchers tested the technology on 21 volunteer dental patients to measure the patients' reactions to cold stimuli applied to teeth. The patients seated on dental chairs wore caps fitted with sensors that were used to detect changes in blood flow and oxygenation. The researchers wore augmented reality glasses to view the subject’s brain activity in real time on a reconstructed brain template. The study allowed them to collect pain data from the brain and develop algorithms that could be coupled with new software and neuroimaging hardware, and predict the presence or absence of pain about 70% of the time.

CLARAi could enable practitioners to understand a patient’s pain better while still remaining focused on the procedure at hand. “Right now, we have a one to ten rating system, but that’s far from a reliable and objective pain measurement,” noted DaSilva.

Although the current research has focused only on dental pain, researchers hope to include other types of pain and different conditions in the future.

Tags:

To post a reply please login or register

How to create aesthetic dental makeovers in real time with IvoSmile

German dentist Dr Andreas Kurbad has been treating patients in his private practice since 1990 and serves on the editorial board of the International ...

AI & ML for real time pathology detection in dentistry

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been pivotal in refining diagnostic accuracy and revolutionizing care. Of all the applications that AI can provide us, ...

Teeth within an hour: A ticking time bomb

In my lecture at this year’s EAO meeting, attendees received an overview of over 50 years of working with implants and why we did it in certain ways back ...

How open architecture CAD/CAM can benefit your practice

ChairsideCAD, available from exocad, is the choice of software for leading manufacturers of dental CAD/CAM systems, according to the company, and it has ...

How dentists in India can safeguard against litigation

This article is Part 2 in our series on dental litigation in India. In Part 1, we examined the rising trend of dental litigations and the increasing legal ...

COVID-19 advances acceptance of teledentistry among patients

Dubai, UAE: A survey of residents in the UAE and Saudi Arabia has found that 88% of the respondents appreciate the advantages of teledentistry and online ...

Dr. C. P. Boghani - a great academic & clinician

A heartfelt tribute to Dr. C. P. Boghani, a great periodontist, clinician, academic, and editor.

Interview: “Even the most experienced clinician is inconsistent—AI is not”

Dr Kyle Stanley is a specialist in implantology, founder of a company transforming patient care through artificial intelligence (AI) and a passionate ...

Bruxism: Is the implant failure risk real?

With the findings from earlier studies being controversial, and the only two systematic reviews ever conducted being inconclusive, this topic was a big ...

Soft skills—The real skills

Dr. Sujit Pardeshi is a well known author, dentist, personality development-management trainer & public speaker. He has done his Masters in Business ...

Education

Live webinar
Thu. 11 September 2025
10:30 pm IST (New Delhi)