The entertaining goggles are put through their paces at the dentist

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BRIDPORT, England, 25 July 2006 - A Finnish innovation could soon banish the view of your dentist peering at your cavities, and replace it with your favourite music videos, documentaries or cartoons.

And as well as keeping you amused, the Prodent system provides welcome distraction, which dentists have found cuts the need for anaesthetic.

Inventor Ismo Karttunen says it all began just over three years ago, when he was reclining at the dentist. "I really wanted to look at something other than a white ceiling and bright light," he says.

And so the Prodent service was born. Karttunen introduced a virtual reality-style headset - fitted with TV screens in front of the eyes and wired for sound - connected to a box with the processing power for entertainment. He experimented with the prototype at his own dentist's surgery.

Hundreds of music videos, as well as nature videos, cartoons and documentaries are available, but two popular demos recently on display near the company's headquarters in Jyväskylä Science Park, Finland were Robbie Williams and Sting.

The specs are relatively comfortable, and have slight gaps around the edge, providing some peripheral vision. "The user feels in control, if you couldn't see what was going on at all it might add to the anxiety," Karttunen says.

But there are other benefits besides making dentistry more entertaining - Finnish dental patients using Prodent went longer without an anaesthetic injection than patients just staring at the ceiling in recent trials.

It seems that straightforward distraction is behind the results, which meant many patients got through simple procedures without anaesthetic, Karttunen says. Studies looking at patient's heart beat analysis and galvanic skin response suggest that the system does decrease stress levels and promote relaxation.

Patients undergoing other procedures with local anaesthetic could also benefit. Preliminary trials in Coxa hospital Finland were stopped and the system adopted immediately because medics were impressed with Prodent.

Karttunen reckons the biggest barrier to adopting this innovation is that some dentists are too traditional, and others like to rely on injections.

Improving the dental experience is important: according to the British Dental Health Foundation some 22 per cent of people who visit the dentist less frequently than they should, do so because they suffer with dental phobia.

On the other hand, lengthy aesthetic dentistry procedures such as whitening and veneers are increasingly popular, and expensive. Offering an immersive video experience could provide ‘value added' dentistry as well as alleviating anxiety, discomfort or boredom.