Farewell to dreaded dentist drill a blessing

Anna Wallis PHOTO/FILE

Along with fingernails on a blackboard, there can be no worse sound than a dental drill.

That high-pitched buzz will bring back memories for most New Zealanders over a certain age, memories bad enough to make the "Is it safe?" scene in Marathon Man more documentary than film.

From the moment a pupil at primary school would come back from the Murder House to class with a note in hand, you presumed your number was up.

School dental nurses were as expert and humane as any medical professional, but it's unfathomable these days how so much pain could be delivered without an anaesthetic or some other pain killer.

The sound of the drill, and the subsequent digging up of gum tissue and nerve endings to put in fillings is the abiding memory of the school dental service.

Remembering it was free and efficient is difficult.

However for today's children there may be a much better way to deal with tooth decay and Wanganui has been chosen to trial the new method.

It may be possible to do away with the drill and instead place a special cap over a decayed tooth to solve the problem.

The trial is a collaboration between the Whanganui District Health Board, Otago University, Cure Kids and manufacturing company 3M.

Hallelujah.

Filling without drilling for all dentistry is a breakthrough of the highest order.

The cap is not the only initiative: At King's College, London, they are experimenting with using electrical currents to boost the tooth's natural repair process.

If the nerve-jangling whine of the drill is silenced forever, half the problem of going to the dentist is solved.

Now we just have to figure out how to pay.