OK, So I have a new device that I want to add to the Apple Vision Pro discourse. it is the... AUDIAC. look at this picture. These happy women are about to have a serious dental procedure without the help of anesthetic. That's because they have headphones on. It pumped sound into your ear. And it was supposed to end the pain of tooth extraction. It's as simple as it sounds. They thought you'd be so distracted that you didn't realize your tooth
was getting drilled into at the moment. it led to bea
utiful sentences
like this one: “I spent a delightful hour in the dentist's
chair this week...” That is a sentence that was never typed before
and will never be typed again. The audiac did not replace anesthesia, but I think it has an important lesson. We are so afraid
today of underhyping new technologies, of laughing at the next iPhone— (MAD GIGGLING)
$500!?!? Fully Subsidized?!?! that we're guilty
of overhyping them a lot of the time too. That may be true of the Apple Vision Pro,
but it is de
finitely true of the audiac.
which, well, I'll stick with the anesthesia.
Comments
I spent a delightful hour in the dentist's chair this week...
My dentist has this nice Bluetooth headphones that he offers whenever I get a procedure that needs like local anesthesia, like a filling. I've always thought it was so you wouldn't hear the drilling
I listened to this on headphones but in my own chair, just for a change.
I would choose anaesthesia over the Apple Vision Pro as well.
There have been studies done with burn patients who needed their bandages replaced. This is normally extremely painful, but patients who were distracted by VR goggles showing various scenes experienced much less pain.
The biggest problem I have with my dentist is the small talk."So, what was your weekend like?" They asked as they had their hand in my mouth.
I'll take the Audiac.... but I'll take it WITH anesthetic
Fun fact: the hospital in my area has a scanner with special headphones which allow a patient to listen to music during what would otherwise be a long, arduous scanning process. Although I can't testify to the viability of headphones in dentistry, I did spend a delightful 40-ish (I think, it's been a while so I don't remember the exact time) minutes in a scanner listening to muffled showtunes and the occasional beep as my veins were pumped with metals once.
As someone who listens to music via airpods pro during dental, the drugs are still required.
Crazy timing considering I went to the dentist yesterday. I took a big stress ball with me and white-knuckle squeezed it until it was over, haha. Still hurt but at least i didn't feel the need to jump out the chair this time
This is really interesting. @pbsterra did a video recently on the development and history of anesthesia, "Anesthesia Started As A Party Drug" — great watch!
I spent a delightful hour in a dentist's chair this week.
Placebo is a very powerful thing
Researchers are already studying the use of video games as pain relief. The results are positive so far. A lot of the pain we experience is actually distress. So if you can keep the patient claim, you need far less pain medication.
As someone with sensitive teeth who got a root canal while listening to joe Rogan it wasn’t all that bad honestly so maybe there’s sum too this
Really interesting find Phil, but I'd expect better storytelling/conclusions from you. As @Muller3d pointed out above, modern day VR is proving to have a similar pain-ignoring effect due to immersion. Instead of overhype of a new technology, I think the better explanation is that new forms of immersive experiences can lead to powerful effects on the mind, such as numbing/ignoring of pain or sheer panic until such things are mundane. Compare people's reactions to a silent film of a train, fleeing the theatre in fear, when that tech was novel with the countless videos of Richie's plank experience. I have no doubt that those people felt less pain due to the immersive audio that they'd never artificially felt before. But a few decades later, if they took their walkman with them to the dentist, it likely didn't work as well for them. The same kind of thing happened with my wife who wore a VR headset for a dental procedure about 6 years ago. But now that she's spent a lot more time in VR, she likely wouldn't have as strong of an effect again.
Is that Cameron from Ferris Bueller's day off?
He looks like David Spade .
so it's just headphones?
wow...