Fear from dentist's drill could be removed

 LONDON: Researchers are working on a device which could cancel out the noise omitted by a dentist's drill, helping phobics to attend the dentist more easily.

Many people's fear of the dentist is rooted in the ubiquitous noise of the dreaded drill, however the new device would allow the patient to listen to their favourite tunes on an MP3 player. The headphones used with the device use noise cancelling technology, with inbuilt resistors that dull low frequency wavelengths.

"Many people are put off going to the dentist because of anxiety associated with the noise of the dentist's drill, but this device has the potential to make dear of the drill a thing of the past," claimed the professor leading the study, Brian Millar.


"The beauty of this gadget is that it would be fairly cost-effective for dentists to buy, and any patient with an MP3 player would be able to benefit from it, at no extra cost," he added.

The news may concern those phobics who, although petrified of the drill, are calmed by talking procedures through with their dentist. However by using 'adaptive filtering' technology, the headphones will only block out certain wavelengths, allowing the dentist's voice to seep through unchanged.