Patent №
US 6,419,484
Granted
2002-07-16
Filed 2000
Owner
REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE
AI components
1
vision
Assignment
Recorded
Dataset
AIPD
2023_r1 edition
Application
09660036
A dental drill that has one or multiple single mode fibers that can be used to image in the vicinity of the drill tip. It is valuable to image below the surface being drilled to minimize damage to vital or normal tissue. Identifying the boundary between decayed and normal enamel (or dentine) would reduce the removal of viable tissue, and identifying the nerve before getting too close with the drill could prevent nerve damage. By surrounding a drill with several optical fibers that can be used by an optical coherence domain reflectometry (OCDR) to image several millimeters ahead of the ablation surface will lead to a new and improved dental treatment device.
AI classification
Ownership
REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE
assignment · 112180892
Assignors
DASILVA, LUIZ B., COLSTON, BILLY W., JR., JAMES, DALE L.
On an employer assignment, the assignors are typically the inventors.