First FDA approved dental robot on the job in Lubbock
Yomi Dental Assistant by Neocis now working at Caprock Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery
LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - The Yomi Dental Assistant by Neocis helps surgeons insert implants. It was first approved by the FDA in 2017 for one to two implants. Now, it can be used to reconstruct an entire mouth.
“In 2020 they approved it for what we call full arch solution,” Dr. Ramsey Fanous, oral maxillofacial surgeon at Caprock Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, said. “What does that mean? Somebody’s really a dental cripple, you remove all the teeth, you put four to five implants.”
Dr. Fanous started doing implant surgery 28 years ago, and recently started using this machine for complicated surgeries.
“I’ve got nerves that I’ve got to work around, sinuses,” Dr. Fanous said. “This is like my GPS, it tells me exactly where to go, but I’m the surgeon, I’m the one who drives the robot, it just tells me where to go.”
Dr. Fanous says accuracy is important, because surgeons can cause a lot of extra stress if they’re just 0.2 millimeters off.
“You will be frustrated because you may have multiple visits at the dentist, something doesn’t fit, not quite the right angle,” Dr. Fanous said.
The Yomi Dental Assistant can make procedures faster.
“Usually you’d make an incision, that procedure would usually take about an hour and 15 to an hour and a half; it took 38 minutes,” Dr. Fanous said.
Not only is there less time spent in the chair, the recovery time is also shorter.
“I really never had any pain...they pulled all of my teeth and put in the post at the same time, and I really did well,” patient Wilborn Fish said.
Before Fish tested out the dental robot, he gave dentures a try.
“For me, I just couldn’t get them to fit right,” Fish said. “I know they were made well, but I just couldn’t, I just didn’t like them.”
After getting a new smile, he visited his dentist.
“And he was just completely amazed at how well the teeth went in. I guess he had trouble in past with folks who had implants, but he said this is phenomenal,” Fish said.
Dr. Fanous says it doesn’t cost extra to get implants using the robot.
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