University of Basel's Tiny Dental Robot Could Reduce Crown Appointments

Executive Briefing

• Researchers developed MIR, a wine-cork-sized robot designed to prepare teeth for dental crowns with digital precision
• Achieves positional error under 0.2mm in testing, with drilling forces below five newtons on synthetic tooth models
• Attaches to a custom dental splint that moves with the patient's head, addressing involuntary movement concerns
• Requires added sensors and cameras before human trials, as current prototype lacks real-time position correction
• Long-term goal enables CAD-CAM crown manufacturing during or before tooth preparation, cutting return visits