DENTAL TREATMENT UNIT PROVIDED WITH AN NFC DEVICE

Abstract

A dental treatment unit comprising: a dentist's board for interaction with a human operator, a scialytic lamp, a hydrogroup, a plurality of electronic boards connected through a BUS, a patient chair,
and provided with an NFC reader configured to automatically activate the communication with at least one NFC tag carried by a human operator, when the NFC tag is close to the NFC reader at a reading range less than 10 cm, the NFC reader is configured for registering a human operator carrying the NFC tag at a first connection with the dental treatment unit.

Claims

1. A dental treatment unit comprising: a dentist's board provided with a graphical interface for interaction with a human operator, a scialytic lamp, a hydrogroup, a plurality of electronic boards connected through a BUS, a patient chair comprising a seat that can be raised/lowered with respect to the ground, a backrest, and an arch arm allowing the backrest to assume a position substantially parallel to the ground, or a position substantially perpendicular to the ground, or all the intermediate positions between these two extreme positions, wherein an NFC reader is provided and configured to automatically activate communication with at least one NFC tag carried by a human operator when a NFC tag is near to the NFC reader at a reading range less than 10 cm, the NFC reader being configured for registering a human operator carrying the NFC tag at a first connection with the dental unit.

2. The dental treatment unit according to claim 1, wherein NFC technology is chosen from the group consisting of NXP's Mifare, HID's iCLASS, LEGIC's platform, Sony's FeliCa, or Open systems.

3. The dental treatment unit according to claim 1, wherein the NFC tag carried by a human operator is housed in a bracelet worn by a human operator, or in a smart watch, or alternatively in the form of a badge carried in a pocket of a human operator or embedded in a cell phone or smart watch provided with a specific APP.

4. The dental treatment unit according to claim 1, wherein the NFC reader is housed inside the dentist's board.

5. The dental treatment unit according to claim 1, wherein the NFC reader is housed inside an assistant's board or inside the hydrogroup.

6. A method for the use of the dental treatment unit according to claim 1, comprising the following steps: providing the dental treatment unit provided with the NFC reader connected to the BUS of the dental treatment unit; providing at least the NFC tag that can be read by the NFC reader; bringing the NFC tag in proximity of the NFC reader on the dental treatment unit, so as to establish contact; at first connection, performing the registration of the NFC reader on the dental treatment unit by inserting the name of a dental operator carrying the NFC tag; contact between the NFC reader and the NFC tag worn by a human operator allows the performance of one or more of the following operations: stopping a stand-by or hygiene mode of the dental treatment unit; and/or setting a series of working parameters of the different instruments provided on the dental treatment unit, and/or connecting to a management software of the dental treatment unit, containing data and images of patients; and/or when the dental treatment unit is provided with a module for voice commands, giving consent to the voice command by approaching the NFC; and/or activating, through the NFC tag, optional modules/functionalities on the dental treatment unit.

7. The method for the use of the dental treatment unit according to claim 6, wherein the NFC tag is carried by a service technician, through the contact between the NFC reader and NFC tag, the technician is allowed to act on the firmware/software of the dental treatment unit, by downloading and uploading files.

8. The method for the use of the dental treatment unit according to claim 6, wherein the NFC tag is carried by a patient; when a patient is in the patient chair of the dental treatment unit, the approaching of the NFC tag to the NFC reader triggers: a stop of a stand-by mode of the dental treatment unit; when the dental treatment unit is provided with voice control, the emission of a voice message welcoming a patient; the visualization of the clinical record of a patient seated in the dental patient chair on the same graphical interface or on an optional screen provided on the dental treatment unit.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0047] Further advantages and properties of the present invention are disclosed in the following description, in which exemplary embodiments of the present invention are explained in detail based on the drawings:

[0048] FIG. 1 Lateral view of a typical dental treatment unit;

[0049] FIG. 2 NFC symbol placed in proximity of the NFC reader;

[0050] FIG. 3 Example of a layout of a dental practice provided with a plurality of dental treatment units;

[0051] FIG. 4 Examples of menus that can be viewed on the graphical interface;

[0052] FIG. 5 Example of interaction between human operator and dental treatment unit.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0053] FIG. 1 shows a dental treatment unit 10, in particular a chair mounted dental treatment unit. Said chair mounted dental treatment unit comprises: a patient chair 1, a hydrogroup 2, a bowl 3, a dentist's board 4 preferably provided with a graphical interface 45 (more visible in FIG. 5), an assistant's board 5, and a scialytic lamp 12. Patient's chair seat 7 and backrest 8 move with respect to each other through an arch arm 9. Optionally said dental unit further comprises a screen, on which patient's data can be visualized; such data are memorized in a management software of the dental practice.

[0054] In the dentist's board 4 there is provided an NFC reader allowing the interaction with at least an NFC tag carried by a human operator. In an embodiment, said NFC reader is placed on the side of the dentist's board 4, while in another embodiment the NFC reader is placed on the rear of the dentist's board 4. On the dentist's board 4 there is provided a symbol indicating to human operators the position whereto said NFC tag must be approached. Said NFC symbol 31, which measures about 2020 mm, is shown in FIG. 2.

[0055] On the dental treatment unit 10 there is provided an electronic board containing an NFC reader. Said electronic board is connected to the BUS of the dental treatment unit. In the preferred embodiment, said electronic board comprising the NFC reader is placed inside the dentist's board 4. Given the low range of sensitivity, the dental operator can easily approach her/his tag to the NFC reader. Nonetheless, different placements are possible, e.g. in the top portion of the hydrogroup 2 or in the assistant's board 5, anyway in a position that is about at the height of the dental operator's hands.

[0056] FIG. 3 shows an example of a layout 20 of a dental practice provided with a plurality of dental treatment units 10, in this particular case provided with twelve dental treatment units 10. From the layout, which is just an example, is easy to gather that the distance between two units 10 is shorter than 2 m.

[0057] By observing the layout of FIG. 3 is easy to understand why a short transmission range is so crucial, in that when two human operators operate on two adjacent dental treatment units 10 and 10, there is the danger that the first operator, who is working on the unit 10, gives a command that might affect the second unit 10 on which the second dental operator is working, endangering the patient that is laying on the second unit 10. The short sensitivity range, lower than 10 cm, prevents this danger.

[0058] At the first use of a dental treatment unit 10 by a new operator, e.g. Dr Bianchi, Dr Bianchi approaches his NFC tag to the icon 31 placed on the dentist's board 4.

[0059] This activates a menu like the one shown in FIG. 4, that first allows to type through a (not shown) keyboard available on the graphical interface the name of Dr Bianchi, and then to choose a series of preferred settings for each of the instruments provided on the unit 10 (e.g. curing lamp and/or scialytic lamp intensity, number of turns of micro-motor/turbine, height and degree of reclining of the patient chair seat, etc.).

[0060] The univocal association between tag and human operator, e.g. Dr Bianchi, occurs the first time when a given human operator approaches the dental treatment unit 10: the operator must manually insert her/his name on said dental treatment unit 10, and this establishes a biunivocal connection between operator's tag and unit 10. When Dr Bianchi wishes to operate on a second unit 10, the same operation must be repeated. In other words, the tag is anonymous per se: only in connection with a given dental treatment unit 10 or 10 the NFC tag is recognized as belonging to a given operator.

[0061] FIG. 4 shows two examples of menus 41, 42, that can be visualized on the graphical interface 45 of the dentist's board 4.

[0062] The first menu 41 comprises an icon 43; if clicked, it leads to the second menu 42, allowing, as explained above, the biunivocal connection between a given dental treatment unit 10, 10 and a given operator (User 1) who can manually type her/his name and surname.

[0063] In case of a maintenance intervention, a service technician goes to the dental practice and logs in through her/his NFC tag, opening a maintenance menu normally not accessible by the staff in the dental practice. Now remote interventions become possible, e.g. downloading, e.g. from a cloud, a series of files, like e.g. firmware/software updates, or uploading the error log on the cloud, or downloading the hygiene cycles performed by the dental treatment unit.

[0064] An icon 44 allows said service technician to activate the Service menu, so as to perform a diagnostic of the dental treatment unit, or to perform a download of an error log, or to perform an upload of new firmware/software files.

[0065] FIG. 5 shows an example of interaction between a human operator 47 and a dental treatment unit 10 provided with a dentist's board 4. As explained above, said dentist's board 4 preferably comprises a graphical interface 45 for issuing commands to a dental treatment unit 10 and for visualizing the settings of said dental treatment unit 10. In this Figure there is shown the case wherein the NFC tag is inside a bracelet 46 worn on a wrist of a human operator 47. Although the NFC tag can also be a badge carried in the pocket of the white coat of the operator, the bracelet or anyway a wearable device is the best solution from the hygienic point of view, in that it does not need to be touched by operator's hands, which could be contaminated by patient's blood/saliva.

[0066] The method according to the present invention comprises the following steps: [0067] Providing a dental treatment unit 10 provided with an NFC reader connected to the BUS of said dental treatment unit; [0068] Providing at least an NFC tag that can be read by said NFC reader; [0069] Bringing said NFC tag in proximity of the NFC reader on the unit 10, so as to establish a contact; [0070] At the first connection, performing the registration of said NFC reader on said dental treatment 10 by inserting the name of the dental operator; [0071] The contact between NFC reader and NFC tag worn by a human operator allows to perform the following operations: [0072] Stopping said stand-by or hygiene mode; and/or [0073] Setting a series of working parameters of the different instruments provided on said dental treatment unit, e.g. intensity of the curing lamp and/or scialytic lamp, number of turns of micro-motor/turbine, height of the dental chair seat, degree of reclining of the backrest, etc., even using shortcuts; and/or [0074] Connecting to the management software of the dental practice, containing data and images of patients; and/or [0075] When said dental treatment unit is provided with a module for voice commands, giving consent to the voice command by approaching said NFC; and/or [0076] Activating, through said NFC tag, optional modules/functionalities on said dental treatment unit 10, at the same time or successively to the installation of said unit 10 in the dental practice; and/or [0077] In case of a maintenance intervention by a service technician, activating, through the contact between NFC reader and tag, the possibility for the technician to act on the firmware/software of the dental treatment unit 10, performing file download and upload.

[0078] In an alternative embodiment, each patient is provided with an NFC tag. When the patient takes place in the patient's chair 1 of a dental treatment unit, the approaching between NFC tag and reader triggers: [0079] the stop of the stand-by mode of the dental treatment unit 10 (the scialytic lamp 12 is switched on, the graphical interface on the dentist's board 4 is activated and can be used to visualize information/issue commands); [0080] when said dental treatment unit 10 is provided with voice control, the emission of a voice message welcoming the patient; [0081] the visualization of the clinical record of the patient seated on the dental patient chair on the same graphical interface 45 or on a (not shown) optional screen provided on the dental treatment unit 10.

[0082] With reference to the above-described embodiments, in combination with any of them, the NFC tag associated with dental staff, service technicians and/or patients can be in the form of the NFC system embedded in a cell phone like a smartphone or similar. Generally, cell phones are natively provided with an NFC system and also contain the identifying data of the owner.

[0083] In an embodiment, said cellular phone can be provided with an APP for interfacing with a dental treatment unit and/or with the dental practice management software, and can even work as communication centre among user, dental treatment unit and management centre working under the direct control and supervision of the user.

NUMERIC NUMBER MEANING

[0084] 1 chair [0085] 2 hydrogroup [0086] 3 bowl [0087] 4 dentist's board [0088] 5 assistant's board [0089] 6 pantograph [0090] 7 seat [0091] 8 back rest [0092] 9 arch arm [0093] 10 dental treatment unit [0094] 12 scialytic lamp [0095] 20 dental practice layout [0096] 31 NFC reader symbol [0097] 41 first menu [0098] 42 second menu [0099] 43 icon [0100] 44 icon [0101] 45 graphical interface [0102] 46 bracelet with NFC tag [0103] 47 human operator