Dentistry: Tuning in Teeth

Every so often a dental patient reports that a tooth has turned into a radio receiver, that one of his fillings is acting like an old-fashioned crystal set. Now dentists have devised a way of reversing the process: they are outfitting teeth to do the transmitting.

In an effort to learn what goes on inside the mouth when people chew, drink or swallow, Dr. Samuel Adams II, 28, and his associates at Rochester, N.Y.'s Eastman Dental Dispensary, have been bugging the bridgework of volunteers with tiny radio transmitters fitted into dummy teeth. Crammed inside each electronic tooth are a transistor,...

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