Siledent: dentist's drill noise suppression for improved oral health

Anxiety and fear are major barriers to many people accessing good dental care with consequent impact on their dental health. Development of phobias relating to dental drill noise is a major element of these fears and the provision of silent, or highly noise attenuated, drills would significantly reduce this. The project proposes to develop a set of demonstrator dental drill noise cancellation devices, to be worn by the dental patient, using a combination of patented passive noise cancellation and an active noise cancellation system based on microphones, earphones and sophisticated noise cancelling software in a dedicated microcomputer. In the proposed 18-month Development of Prototype project, TBG Solutions Ltd., Chesterfield UK, in collaboration with Brunel University London and King’s College London, will develop 10 sets of demonstrator drill noise suppression devices to be made by UK-based mass-manufacturing sub-contractors that can be used for trials. Professor Millar at King's College Dental School will chair an advisory panel for the project and arrange trials to be carried out at working dentists’ surgeries.