What are some of the most loathed sounds in your book? Is the dentists drill one of them? If the answer is in the affirmative, then check out this method on which scientists have managed to successfully develop, plugging a device into an MP3 player or cell phone while relying on a filtering technique to cancel out the noise of the drill, doing all of that while enabling you, the patient, to enjoy your favorite tunes over a pair of headphones without missing out on vocal instructions of the dentist.

Sounds good since studies do point towards the drill’s sound as the main cause of anxiety about visiting the dentist for most folks. Professor Brian Millar is the brain behind this idea after he drew inspiration from car manufacturer Lotus, which has developed a system to remove road noise. What we now fear? Dentists who offer this noise cancellation service will now charge us extra, as though they are not already billing us an arm, a leg and a tooth already.

An advantage yes. But the additional charge may still result in patients wanting to go on with the sound drilling since they are already used to it rather than pay additional just to cancel the noise.