For many people, anxiety builds at just the thought of a dental appointment. One of the worst aspects of dental work is simply getting painful anesthetic injections. In response, Bresslergroup (Philadelphia) has produced DentalVibe, a new device that takes the fear and pain out of dental injections by tricking the brain with a vibrating diversion.
The premise behind the DentalVibe is that most dentists already grab the cheek and shake as they inject.
“This idea came to us from a dentist in Florida who came up with the general idea of masking the pain from dental injections by introducing a tool that vibrates the gum during injection,“ David Schiff, Bresslergroup director of engineering, told Medical Device Daily.
Research shows that fear of a painful anesthetic injection keeps half of the patient population away from the dentist. Steven Goldberg, DDS, latched on to the idea that shaking the tissue briefly masks the pain and refined it.
“He started out with a vibrating flosser and held it to a patient's cheek,“ Schiff said. “He then came to us to develop it into a product. We did the research to determine, ergonomically, how it might be used and how it might be handled along with other dental instruments.“
Bresslergroup started with research using a laser interferometer, a device that uses the interference of waves, to determine the optimal vibration frequency and amplitude.
“We discovered that a continuous vibration masked the pain, but after a few seconds, your brain gets used to the signal and the pain signal of injection starts to come through again,“ Schiff said. “By introducing an intermittent pulse – a vibration and then it shuts off for a fraction of a second – it kept sending the vibrating signal to the brain anew.“
Now called the DentalVibe Gate Control Theory of pain management, it creates a diversion for the brain. The DentalVibe, a hand-held tool, also retracts the lips and illuminates the injection area with an LED light. These additional features help to avoid accidental needle sticks and enhance operator visibility, according to the company.
“A dentist only has so many hands,“ Schiff said. “They typically want to retract the cheek with a dental mirror and use the other hand to do the injection. DentalVibe frees up their hand.“
It contains a microprocessor which controls the VibraPulse technology. Those pulses travel along the A-beta nerve fibers and then are transmitted quickly to the brain. Pain sensations travel along the slower C fibers. So in the race to the finish, the brain feels the vibration, not the pain of injection.
The company plans no formal studies since FDA isn't required, and will rely on patient testimonials to boost sales.
DentalVibe, which costs $795 plus single-use, disposable tips, was launched at the Chicago Midwinter Dental Meeting last month.
“The big issue with dentists is how to recoup the cost of DentalVibe,“ Bresslergroup's Director of Marketing, Michael Flanagan, told MDD. “The dentist has to market this to patients, pointing out that it's a differentiator to pull people into his practice. Once the patients experience it, we would think they would be happy with it and come back.“
Lynn Yoffee, 770-361-4789