Generales

A digital intraoral surveyor called SWAD (Spatial Wireless Assistant Device) has received patent pending status from SIC (Colombia’s Patent and Trademark Office). The wireless device, which is intended to improve the manual dexterity skills of dental practitioners, was designed by Dr. Luis Miguel Ramírez, DMD, along with a team of engineers at Universidad de Antioquia.

Professor  Luis Miguel Ramírez, creator of the SWAD

The effectiveness of dental treatments depends largely on the dexterity and accuracy with which the procedure is carried out. The spatial wireless assistant device was designed to help dental practitioners solve a wide range of clinical problems, assist the training of dental students and help improve procedures related to orthodontics, prosthodontics and dental implant surgery.

“Universities are places where ideas are generated,” says Dr. Luis Miguel Ramírez Aristeguieta, a professor and researcher at the UdeA School of Dentistry and creator of the dental device that “effectively meets the increasing need of dental professionals for real-time clinical support”.

The prototype was developed in collaboration with a team of researchers from the UdeA School of Engineering. The device has received patent pending status and is almost ready to hit the market.

“After the patent application was filed in Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio - SIC -(Colombia’s Patent and Trademark Office), we are now making efforts to turn this project into a business model through a triple helix partnership (university-industry-government) led by the Technology Management Program at Universidad de Antioquia,” Dr. Ramírez said.

Patients will benefit from this breakthrough, as they will be offered improved and more precise treatment options, therefore avoiding human errors, which may result in more accurate prognosis and favorable outcomes.

How does SWAD work?

The SWAD is designed to track hand movement during dental procedures and allows the practitioner to detect and correct errors as well as changes in spatial location in real time via an audio and video feedback to achieve more precise therapies.

Currently, much of the dentistry is performed on a trial and error basis. “Before the emergence of this device, dentists did not have any reliable method for controlling human error in real time. With the inception of the SWAD, procedures such as orthodontic treatments, implant surgery and oral rehabilitation can be monitored all the time,” says Dr. Ramírez. 

For example, in conventional prosthodontic procedures the dentist usually takes digital photographs of results after treatment in order to record the case. The dentist makes a mold based on the photograph and assesses the results by using a conventional surveyor. Then the dentist proceeds to make the necessary corrections. The SWAD eliminates these steps by turning them into a synchronous single-step process.

The SWAD allows practitioners to connect wirelessly to a USB port so that they can access the audio and video feedback system, preventing them from making mistakes and allowing the practitioner to control the spatial location.

The SWAD is equipped with software that makes it easy for the dentist to wirelessly control spatial location in real time without being affected by the body position or the patient head movement in order to ensure the correct angulation in various dental procedures.

Researchers at UdeA School of Dentistry’s Biotechnology Center are currently working to develop new and improved devices intended for use in the dental sector. The researchers are now working on prototype designs for a type of dry mouth treatment in collaboration with an international private company with extensive experience in the field of dentistry.

More information can be found here