[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I don't know that it's that horribly expensive--we have a Baby CNC milling machine here, that Mr. Hitch just "had to have," of course (SIGH). He runs it from an older computer that I could no longer really use, but it chugs away merrily driving the milling program.

The computer driving the milling machine doesn't have to be big and powerful. The machine where you develop the code the computer connected to the milling machine will feed it might be another matter.

I suspect it's not that expensive either, but my dentist isn't happy about up-front capital costs and isn't as comfortable with newer technology as others might be. I suspect she'll join the party down the road, but doesn't see enough of a reason to do it now.

What she really needs is an x-ray machine upgrade, to a model that saves to a file she can send electronically, but that likely will be costly.

Now, it's likely NOT the same thing, quite, as a dental milling machine, but...then again, why not? After all, it's not like the cleaning etc., occurs then. It doesn't need to be in a clean-room, you can do that later.

The milling machine may not be that different or extraordinary, but I'd love to see the software the dentist uses to design the replacement tooth the machine will make.

How interesting that is! I'd no idea, but you're right--makes perfect sense.

I think we are just seeing the tips of icebergs like that. 3D printers, for example, and getting more extensively used in medicine, to produce things like custom replacement heart valves.

Medicine is like any other industry these days. More powerful, less expensive computers, and more flexible and re-programmable robots are dramatically changing how things are made. There are stories about manufacturing coming back to the US, and it is, but the plants are stuffed with machines that do the manufacture. The number of people employed there is a fraction of what it used to be. The people working there will be programmers for the robots, and techs to maintain the robots. The decent paying low-skilled/unskilled jobs factories used to offer aren't coming back. There is constant pressure everywhere to do things cheaper and lower costs, and if the job can be done by a machine, at some point it will be.

(I, too, have crap Irish-ancestry teeth, but I'm hanging on to mine through a regimen of deranged dental care at home. I'm the queen o'floss, water piks, yadda-yadda. It's silly, but...<shrug> there you go. My mother had full uppers by the time she went. Mine are actually fairly decent, BUT...it's that fanatical flossing, piking, blabbety.)

I managed to keep my teeth longer than I might have expected, but had increasing problems that finally had to be addressed. Had I been born later I might have had less problems, as preventative technology like fluoridation of water started to come in.

But the problems were addressed, and other than no longer existent bad teeth, I'm in generally good health. I know folks who aren't so lucky, and am not complaining.
______
Dennis