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Author Topic: Story - Nanite Technology  (Read 9495 times)

Offline Sparky

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Re: Story - Nanite Technology
« Reply #15 on: 08. September 2020, 15:36:26 PM »
Chapter 9

I got an email from Mike first thing Wednesday. They had held my 'case meeting' on Tuesday, and had agreed the initial treatment plan.

As Mike had suggested, the first step would be to inject me with the first batch of nanites, programmed up to 'dissolve' the roots of my 4 wisdom teeth. Apparently, the effect will be quite similar to when you lose your 'baby teeth'... the roots will slowly disappear and they will slowly stop holding the teeth in place, and the teeth will gently fall out (or I guess I can sort of pull them out!).

The nanites used for that will be naturally passed out of my body, so once the teeth are all out, they will inject more nanites, which will be programmed specifically to move my other 8 main molars backwards - that is likely to take several weeks, so they'll need to inject more nanites each week.

Once those molars have started to move, they will probably program up more nanites to start moving the pre-molars. By that point they will have a lot more experience with the way they nanites are working in my body, so they'll be reviewing my treatment, and will be looking at the more complicated task of not just moving my teeth, but also rotating my teeth.

The whole concept of being treated by nanites is quite exciting - I mean, this is leading edge research they are doing - but it's also a bit scary... I mean, what if something goes wrong?



Offline firesonga

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Re: Story - Nanite Technology
« Reply #16 on: 09. September 2020, 04:41:35 AM »
This is a great story. I am curious as to the direction you are taking the nanite tech. Thank you for writing this.

Offline Sparky

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Re: Story - Nanite Technology
« Reply #17 on: 13. September 2020, 23:57:04 PM »
Chapter 10

It's Monday, after work, and once again I'm off to the LUD for my first treatment - my first nanite injection!

Once again, I checked in at the reception, and the gent called Mike, then gave me a visitor's pass.

"Ah, we have a more permanent visitor's pass for you in the office" commented Mike as he walked me to their office... in fact to the kitchen... "you still need to be escorted, but it will make things a lot easier for everyone. Coffee?"

"Please!"

Mike made us both coffees. "Hopefully we won't take as long today as it took last week, but we do need monitor you for a while before and after injecting you with the nanites, so I'm guessing we'll be done by about 8 o'clock. Come on in to the treatment room"

Sara and Rushil were already in the treatment room, waiting, along with someone else.

"You remember Rushil and Sara from last week. This is Amber, she's one of our assistants here

"Oh, hi again" I said to them both. "I guess you'd like me to sit in the chair?"

"Yes please" said Sara.

"I'll leave you with Sara and Rushil for the moment, but I'll be back soon" said Mike, and he left the room.

I put my bag down at the side, and took off my outdoor jacket.

"So, my job tonight is more getting you connected up, and checking you are ok. Rushil works more with the nanites, and their programming, so he'll be actually injecting the nanites into you tonight, then we'll both be keeping an eye on you. Before we inject you though, I need to place some 'targeting material' onto your wisdom teeth - that makes sure that the nanites work on the correct teeth... I mean we don't want any OTHER teeth to fall out, do we?"

I leaned back in the chair, and Amber passed me some darkened glasses. Next she inserted the lip retractor, then pointed the big light at my face. Finally she inserted the vacuum hose hook into my mouth. Sara then put some tubular cotton wads into my cheeks, to hold my cheeks away from my teeth.

"This is a bit like fitting brackets..." explained Sara. "First I need to slightly etch the sides of your teeth, then I'll apply the targeting material... it's very much like the glue we use to bond brackets, but contains some clever micro-electronic bits that the nanites use to know which teeth to work on." As she talked, she was applying some acid to my teeth. After a few moments, she took the water gun that Amber had passed her, and rinsed my teeth.

"Next I'll dry your teeth, then I'll put the targeting material on - it's cured with a small UV lamp, so won't take long to do." I could feel her puffing the air on my teeth, then she started applying something to the sides of my wisdom teeth. Sara and Amber both then put on visors, and Sara used a wand like thing to shine the UV light into my mouth. Finally she used a poking tool to check it was all properly attached and hardened.

Sara then removed the cotton wool from my cheeks, along with the vacuum hose and the retractors, passing them over to Amber.

"Ok, that bit's done, next we'll wire you up. Whilst you'll be wired up, you don't need to remain especially still, and in fact we'll want to to get up and do some simple exercises, just to check you out. And it's ok to drink and eat - if you need another drink, just ask, and I'm sure there's some snacks around if you'd like some. But first, can I ask you to remove your jumper and your shirt..."

I sat forward, and took off my jumper, then my shirt.

"That's great... so, have you ever had an ECG?"

"No, I haven't, but I've seen them on TV"

"Ah, good, so as you'll probably know that we have a load of these tiny pads we need to put on you, both on your chest, and your head. We'll also be hooking you up to a very portable blood pressure monitor. So, can you lean forward for a moment?"

I leaned forward, and Sara took the small self-adhesive pads that Rushil passed her and put them in various places on my back and front, then Rushil started clipping the tiny wires on, and taping them to my body, to hold them in place.

"You can put your shirt back on again if you like. We'll be doing the ones on your head next."

I put my shirt on, and leaned back in the chair, letting Sara and Rushil put more electrodes on my head. Next, Rushil pulled my shirt sleeve up, and fitted a small rubber sort of band to my upper arm - as he plugged a small wire into the connector, Rushil explained that this was the blood pressure monitor.

"Ok, can you just sit back for the moment" asked Ruhil. I watched as he checked the display on his computer. "You'll feel some pressure on your arm for a moment" he said

I felt the band on my arm tighten, then slowly release over several seconds as the system took my blood pressure. A few seconds later, it did it again.

"Everything seems to be working fine" said Sara, "so we'll take some baseline readings for 10 to 15 minutes.... feel free to move around a bit, and do drink your coffee if you want to. Would you like some biscuits? I did bring some in earlier.... ah, thank you Amber!". She took the lid of the tin, to reveal a very nice selection. I took a couple of the chocolate ones!

While I sat there, I could feel the band on my arm taking my blood pressure every couple of minutes.

"Ok" said Sara about 10 minutes later, "Would you like to carefully get out of the seat, and just stand up for a couple of minutes". I did as requested. "Excellent - I must say, from what I see on these readings, you look to be in pretty good condition. Let's see what happens when you start doing some light exercises."

"Anything in particular?" I asked

"No... bending, squats, maybe running on the spot would all be ok". As I carefully bent over to touch my toes, Rushil and Sara made sure the wires were ok. Next I tried bending to the sides, then squatting, and finally a bit of running on the spot.

"That all looks very good, so if you can sit back in the seat again, Rushil can inject the nanites". Once again, I sat in the chair.

"Are you right-handed?" asked Rushil

"Yes, I am"

"Ok, then I'll inject the nanites into your left arm". Before he did so, he put a strange clip thing over my head, with pads at the end, which he placed on my cheeks. "Don't worry, that's so we can listen to the nanites as they find the targets.

Once again, he rolled up my arm, used a sterilizing pad to clean my skin, then took the syringe that Amber passed him, and managed to get it into my vein at the first attempt. Over about 30 seconds, he slowly injected the nanites into my blood. Next, he turned to the computer display, and watched. I could hear all sorts of strange beeps.

"So, what Rushil is doing is monitoring the nanites as they pass around your blood, and specifically when they find your wisdom teeth, and start sort-of congregating around the roots. How's it going there, Rushil?" explained Sarah.

"Looking very good, already getting some nanite reports. Just hold still for another minute, Jacob, then you can move around again".

"Well, I'm still alive" I commented, jokingly.

"Not only alive, but your graphs are all looking 100%....ok, I've seen enough nanite reports for now, so now you can relax again.... drink whatever, but stay in the chair for the moment."

"So, we've already done a load of work with these nanites. Experience is that if you are going to have any sort of adverse reaction, then it will show up pretty quickly. If you're still alive in 30 minutes, then you'll be ok till at least next week!" she said, throwing my joke back at me.

"It must be interesting, working on stuff like this" I commented.

"Well, yes and no... the concept of we are doing is absolutely amazing, but there's a lot of hard work to do, working with test subjects like you, interpreting the masses of data that the computers record. Reports. All that sort of stuff.... but I wouldn't change it for anything else" said Sara

"Absolutely" added Rushil. "I'm working with the team that's working on the nanite side of things, that's amazingly cool. Plus it's nice to interact with our test subjects, our 'patients'."

"How many patients you got doing this?" I asked

"I think it's ten, we saw you and five others last week, the other will be starting with us this week. You're actually the first one to get nanites, but that's mainly because you need your wisdom teeth removing, and we've done that sort of thing before, so we're not expecting any surprises"

"How bad are the other people's teeth?"

"Obviously I can't go into a lot of detail, but some are like you with fairly moderate issues, but we do have some patients with quite challenging issues. One has some un-descended upper canines, that's going to be interesting."

We chatted more as I finished my coffee. Then Mike came in.

"How's it all going?" he asked

"Jacob seems to be quite healthy, and so far he's has absolutely no effects from the nanites - I was just going to ask him to do some more exercising"

"Great - nanites performing ok, Rushil?"

"Yes, they seem to be working exactly as expected"

"Great, I'll leave you to it for the moment."

Once again, I got carefully out of the chair, and did some simple exercises, then sat back in the chair.

"Well, I think we are both happy, I think we can remove all your wires and probes, then you can get properly dressed again, and we can go see Mike. Jacob, would you like another coffee?"

"Yes please, black no sugar"

"I'll go get it while you un-wire him" said Amber, "You want one too?". They both nodded.

Ten minutes later, I was dressed again, and was in the meeting room with Mike, Sara and Rushil, and we were all enjoying another cup of coffee

"Well, it sounds like everything is looking good" said Mike after a quick chat with Sara and Rushil. "Thanks again for taking part in our work. Ah, yes, here's your long-term visitor pass, make sure you bring it each week, it will make things a lot simpler. Now, remember if you feel anything strange or out of the ordinary, get in touch with us, night or day. Here's another laminated card, if you can keep that with you at all times, it gives emergency contact information."

"And I guess you'll want me to keep the teeth when they fall out"

"Yes please. They may have fallen out by next week, or it may take a bit longer, that doesn't matter. The important thing is that the whole experience, including the teeth coming out, should be comfortable and absolutely pain free! And don't forget to fill in the daily diary, morning and evening - and at any other time you need to"

It was just after 8pm when I left the building. Even though I'd had a couple of biscuits, I was hungry, so went and found somewhere to have some dinner.

Offline Sparky

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Re: Story - Nanite Technology
« Reply #18 on: 17. September 2020, 19:03:47 PM »
Chapter 11


Tuesday morning: I woke up, and checked myself out. My body felt absolutely normal. I was wondering if there would be any swelling or anything in my gums, but there was nothing. My wisdom teeth still felt solid though!

Wednesday: Still feeling fine, although one of my wisdom teeth feels a tiny bit loose

Thursday: that one tooth is definitely getting looser, others still seem firm

Friday: Ah, the other teeth are starting to feel a little bit loose.

Saturday morning: That tooth is definitely getting loose. No pain anywhere.

Saturday evening: I just started playing with that wobbly wisdom tooth, and it fell out in my fingers! No pain, the gum feels fine. Just like when I lost my baby teeth. Other teeth staring to get even looser. The tooth has 4 tiny roots, clearly the nanites have been doing their job really well. I put the tooth into one of the bags they had given me.

Sunday morning: overnight two of my three remaining wisdom teeth are getting noticeably loose

Sunday lunchtime: I almost ate one of my wisdom teeth! It fell out when I was eating, another one isn't far from coming out. After lunch, I managed to pull the third one out.... I'm sure if I'd left it a bit longer, it would have fallen out by itself, but it was annoying me. The roots on that one were slightly longer, probably because I'd not waited long enough.

Sunday evening: The last one is definitely loosening, I'll bet it falls out tomorrow.

Monday morning: It's still there! My health has been fine all week.

Monday lunchtime: getting quite loose... I keep playing with it! Wobbling it, just like I did when I was a kid.

Monday mid-afternoon: I was having a biscuit with my coffee, and felt something crispy... my last wisdom tooth! I must say, I don't know what it would have been like to have them extracted, but having the nanites do it has been so easy, and absolutely painless!


Offline Taxy

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Re: Story - Nanite Technology
« Reply #19 on: 19. September 2020, 17:08:30 PM »
I'll be honest I'm not really enjoying this story so much. All thats happened appears to be very 'behind the scenes' with the nanites. I'd say to try and take this another direction since currently no drama or anything is happening in the story, unless thats what you are going for.

Offline Braceface2015

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Re: Story - Nanite Technology
« Reply #20 on: 19. September 2020, 18:15:55 PM »
Let's wait to see what Sparky has in mind. His stories are always good and it is interesting to see where the different writers take us with their stories. Not all stories have to be fast paced and constantly have something exciting happening

Sometimes when I am reading a story I think to myself, "that gives me an idea for a story", so I write one. Other times, I will think that I can try to do a better job writing a story, so I try and do that. There are many times that a story doesn't appeal to me, but that doesn't mean it isn't good.

My suggestion is to write a story for us to read that you like, so that we can see what appeals to you.

We have some very talented writers here that never get enough kind comments for all the work that they put into writing stories for us to read. By archiving them and sharing them with a wider audience, I hope to help writers like Sparky get the appreciation that they deserve.

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Offline Sparky

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Re: Story - Nanite Technology
« Reply #21 on: 21. September 2020, 03:22:36 AM »
This story is a bit different from the many other stories I've written.... pretty much all the other stories are about braces.... traditional braces that is. They are over in the "club" forum, but I decided that I  would start a story or two here in the more public area

I don't know what gave me the idea, but yes, there is likely to be a twist in the story.... there usually is, otherwise it would be a bit boring!

Need to post the next episode for you (it's on my pc.... writing this on my tablet).... where Jacob will get his first lot of actual treatment nanites....

Offline napacaster

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Re: Story - Nanite Technology
« Reply #22 on: 21. September 2020, 05:05:20 AM »
Great story so far!
I can see something going wrong with an experimental treatment that might require a very complicated traditional treatment.
NapaCaster

Offline Nameless

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Re: Story - Nanite Technology
« Reply #23 on: 21. September 2020, 07:51:32 AM »
I wanna start out by saying that the world building/setting the stage is great. I can tell you really have a good eye for detail. While as of yet this particular story isn't the one for me personally, I can see and appreciate all the work you've put into it. It is very solid written and reads pretty smoothly, so props for that! I can't wait to be able to get into the story section to read more of what you and other authors have wrote over the years!

Offline Sparky

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Re: Story - Nanite Technology
« Reply #24 on: 22. September 2020, 03:47:57 AM »
Keep commenting on the stories, get involved, and you'll  soon have enough posts!

Offline Sparky

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Re: Story - Nanite Technology
« Reply #25 on: 22. September 2020, 18:36:10 PM »
Time for Jacob to get his next lot of nanites, the ones that will start moving his teeth...


Chapter 12


Monday after work I once again traveled to LUD, making sure I had my wisdom teeth with me: I guessed that the research team would be wanting to look at them, probably compare them to my x-rays, and see how their nanites performed.

As I arrived, I took out the ID card that Mike had given me, and showed it to the man at the reception - who recognised me, said "Good evening, sir" to me, and called Mike.

"Hi Jacob, how's it going" Mike asked as he took me through to their office

"I have a present for you...." I replied, and took the bag with the 4 teeth out of my pocket

"Oh, excellent, it will be interesting to see how the nanites performed. Any problems?"

"No, the last one came out this afternoon... as you said, it's almost like losing my baby teeth. Ok, the sockets are a little delicate right now, but no real pain as such"

After spending 5 minutes having a coffee and a general chat, I was taken into the treatment room.

"So, Rushil isn't in this evening, so you have me, Sara and Chris today... and of course, Amber! Let's start by taking some pictures, then we'll do the X-rays"

Once again, I sat back in the treatment chair, with my lips held wide apart by some lip spreaders, while Mike took a careful look at my gums, where my wisdom teeth used to be.

"Yes, your gums are looking really good. It's going to take a week or so for the gums to fully heal, but I'm sure that won't be a problem." Mike then took a set of pictures, documenting my teeth. Then he took me into the X-ray room, and did another full set of X-rays

"We need to check what's happened in the last week, specifically to make sure the nanites only worked on your wisdom teeth, and not any of the others, plus make sure there's no bits of your wisdom teeth still actually left in your gums."

After taking the X-rays, Mike spent a few moments comparing them.

"It's all looking good, apart from 4 teeth missing, the new X-rays look amazingly like last week's"

We went back in the treatment room, where we found Sara.

"Oh hi, Sara"

"Hi Jacob, please, take a seat. I was just looking at your wisdom teeth, they look good. Maybe you can walk us through when they came out, how, and what it all felt like... oh, would you mind if I record what you say? " said Sara

"Sure... erm, well, they all seemed pretty firm until Thursday, when one of them felt a tiny bit loose. The others started getting loose over the next couple of days, and the first one came out while I was having my lunch on Saturday"

"Any pain at all, both while they were loose, and when it came out?"

"No actual pain, but the place the tooth was felt a bit delicate, which I guess is pretty normal"

"Yes, that's a common report we've had. Do continue..."

"The next two teeth came out on Sunday: one came out by itself at lunchtime, and the next one was so loose, I pulled it out just after lunch. Again no real pain, just soreness where the tooth came out"

"And the last one?" said Sara, continuing to take notes

"This afternoon, your nanites seem to have good timing!"

"Ok, let me go get Chris to come and check out the nanites, see how many are still active, then we'll disable the remaining ones. After that, assuming Mike's happy with the X-rays, and you're still happy to go ahead, we'll inject the next lot of nanites, and start your treatment". While she was talking to me, Amber went out, and a few moments later, she returned, along with Chris.

"Hi Jacob, we did meet briefly last week. So, yeah, I'm going to do something similar to what I guess Rushil did last week. The first thing I need to do is to 'have a chat' with the nanites, and see how many are still in your system... then I'll 'kill" them."

"Can't you just re-program them and reuse them?" I asked

"In concept, maybe. But there's currently a couple of issues... first of all, the nanites you have inside you that helped to extract your teeth are actually different from the ones we'll be using to move your teeth. Similar, but different. the other issue is that, at the moment, the nanites aren't actually lasting long enough, I'm expecting that most of your's will be already inactive."

Chris fitted the head-clamp, with the pads that went on my cheek, This week, he also placed a couple of pads on my neck.

"So, the pads on your cheek will interact with any nanites still in your jaw area. The pads on your neck will be able to see any nanites that are just flowing in your bloodstream"

Chris connected the head-clamp thing to a laptop, just like Rushil did last week, and started typing on the keyboard

"Ok, just relax... I mean you can move around, that's not an issue, but this will take a while...."

As I sat back and relaxed in the chair, I turned to Amber: "I guess this is a bit different from working with a normal dentist, isn't it?"

"Yes, I guess it is, although I do also work with some other teams, who are doing research into more traditional treatments."

"So how did you get into doing this?" I asked. Amber explained that she had badly crooked teeth as a teen, and spent a lot of time at the orthodontist, where she got to know a couple of the assistants, and that inspired her to want to be some sort of dental assistant.

"I started working at a large dental surgery, and by luck, ended up helping the orthodontist there...". She explained that she did some more training, and went to work specifically for an ortho. Then I saw this job come up, and i sounded like it could be interesting"

"And is it"

"Yeah, it is...."

"Ok" said Chris, "it looks like about half of the nanites are still alive, which is pretty much what we expect. Now, I just need to put this on your neck...". Chris removed the 'head clamp, and fitted a sort of metal clamp with larger pads to my neck.

"This will kill them off, you should feel nothing, but it will take a few minutes"

"It's a shame you can't combine that with the other thing you were just using"

"It's something we're looking at. These are all prototypes, so we've kept the functions separate, but you're right, it would be a lot easier if they were combined."

A few minutes later, Chris removed the device, then fitted the previous one again.

"Let's see if we got them all...". Chris watched the screen again for a couple of minutes. "That looks good, no nanites have reported back. Ok, I'll hand things back to Sara for the moment" He said, as he removed the 'head clamp'.

"Thank's Chris, I'll call you when we're ready for the new nanites. So, Jacob, we need to hook you up to the monitor again, and take some baseline measurements, just like we did last week. After that, we'll inject the new nanites, and again we'll watch you for a while. Oh, yes, I'll also need to put some targetting material onto some of your teeth... tell you what, let's do that first"

I leaned back in the chair, Amber fitted the lip spreader, then Sara, ably assisted by Amber, lightly etched my rear molars, put some material onto them, and used a UV lamp to harden it.

"The plan is to start moving your rear molars backwards, and assuming that goes ok, we'll then also get your other molars moving." Sara explained as she removed my lip spreader, and passed it to Amber

"Oh, so you're not moving them all together then?" I asked

"Not with you, no... but we'll be doing that with some of the other patients: we need to work out which is the best way to do things, so we'll try out a few ways of doing it, and see which works the best. Ok, let's get you hooked up to the monitor...."

I removed my shirt, and just like last week, Amber and Sara fitted several small pads to me, some on my chest, some on my head.

"Once again, I'm happy to report that both your heart and brain seem to be working fine. Hopefully, if this looks similar to last week, we won't need to take so long..."

"Shall I go get us some coffees and biscuits, while you watch things?" asked Amber

"Great idea" replied Sara. "Jacob?"

"Yes please, black coffee no sugar!". Sara got me to do some quick exercises, to get my heart working a bit. The coffee arrived a couple of minutes later.

"Yes, you look good, so Amber, can you tell Chris we're ready please?". While Amber went to get Chris, Sara re-fitted the head clamp, positioning the pads once again on my jaws and neck.

A minute later Amber and Chris returned.

"Ok, so, before I inject you with the next set of nanites, I need to ask you if you are still happy for us to proceed with the treatment?" said Chris

"Yes, I'm happy, go ahead.." I replied. Just like last week, Chris injected the nanites into my arm, and monitored them. I sat in the chair for a while, then did some simple exercises, all the time Chris and Sara were watching the monitors.

"The new nanites are starting to find their targets" commented Chris, "but I guess it will take a bit longer for them all to get there. Jacob, welcome to the world of nanite braces treatment!"

Offline Sparky

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Re: Story - Nanite Technology
« Reply #26 on: 21. October 2020, 17:02:44 PM »
Chapter 13

The rest of the session went pretty much the same as last week: they monitored me for a while, and I did some light exercise, and once again it seemed that my body was coping ok with the nanites. And it seemed that the nanites were finding their way to my jaw.

I wasn't really sure what to expect, not so much in terms of what the nanites would do, but how quickly they would do it. I had been told that, like any other braces - so clear plastic or traditional train tracks - the movement would be fairly slow: after all, we're talking about moving teeth through bone.

On the way back home, I was thinking about what I was doing: I was having my teeth straightened, but WITHOUT braces! You didn't see all that many people with metal braces any more, and I was pretty sure that just as many people had crooked teeth, so obviously they were being treated with one of the many different versions of 'clear braces'.... what was that one that I used to see the adverts for on TV... ah yes, 'Smile Direct Club'. These all allowed people to have their teeth straightened far more discretely.

But whilst people might like to think that those clear braces were 'invisible' they weren't really. I had a girlfriend as a teen, and shee had those braces, but close up, you could tell she had braces.

But my treatment was TRULY invisible, my 'braces' were actually nanites, and they were in my body, in my jaws. The only 'hint' that I was having some treatment was the incredibly hard to see 'targeting material' that was currently on my rear molars. I had looked closely at my wisdom teeth when they had fallen out, to see exactly what that 'material' was: it looked like a thin layer of clear plastic, and if you looked VERY carefully, you could see little silver flecks in it: Chris had explained that they were tiny bits of electronic circuits, like you got inside ICs, but smaller, and they gave the nanites a sort of 'datum point' from which to work. When I ran my tongue over my molars, I could feel it, but it was very smooth, and so very comfortable.

Knowing that I would have no braces to actually 'show off' to people, I'd not actually told anyone that I was having treatment... except my boss, of course, who I felt should know, just in case something happened to me. But with my appointments being after work, absolutely noone else knew what I was doing.

I've read horror stories about when people get braces, both old-school brackets and the more normal invisible plastic braces, they complain that for the first few days their teeth feel very tender, due to the forces that the new braces were applying to their teeth. I had absolutely no pain at all, not even a tiny bit of discomfort, which was very pleasing.

One of the things I had been asked to do was to keep a daily diary: morning and night I had to comment about my treatment, one of the things they wanted to know about was any pain or discomfort. The first few days were simply 'nothing to report', but by Saturday, I started to notice that my teeth felt a bit different when I bit together. No pain, it was just that my teeth were not quite touching in the way they used to - which would make a lot of sense if my teeth had started to move. I also noticed when I flossed my teeth on the Saturday that the flossing tape seemed to go between my molars a bit easier.

So, a week has passed, and it was Monday once again. I was, once again, on the tube, on the way to LUD for my weekly appointment.....

Offline Nameless

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Re: Story - Nanite Technology
« Reply #27 on: 22. October 2020, 06:20:13 AM »
My initial comment was that the theme of the story isn't one that heavily appeals to me, but thinking about it more, it would be an amazing feat for science to be able to achieve this standard for treatments. It would be pretty exciting in it's own way to be a participant in this type of study, so thank you for continuing this story.

PS the ellipses implying the cliffhanger was a nice touch, at least in my opinion

Offline Sparky

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Re: Story - Nanite Technology
« Reply #28 on: 22. October 2020, 18:20:00 PM »
Chapter 14

I arrived at LUD a little earlier than normal, and had a chance to have a short chat with the older gent on the reception, nothing in particular, but he seemed to be quite a nice guy.

This time it wasn't Mike to came to collect me, it was Amber, the dental assistant.

"Oh, hello Amber!" I said

"Hello there, Jacob, nice to see you again, do come with me"

"It's a pleasant surprise to be collected by you - Mike busy?"

"No, Mike had to leave early today, but everyone else is here. How's your week been?"

"Personally, a pretty quiet week. As far as my teeth go, I think there's been a very tiny bit of movement"

"Oh, good, I'm sure the team will be happy to hear that..."

As ever, we stopped to grab a cup of coffee, then met up with the team: Sara, Chris, Rushil were there, as well as David (aka The Prof). They had read my diary entries, but simply wanted to go into a lot more details: any sort of side effects, however small (I reported that I'd had a bit of a headache yesterday morning, but didn't feel it was related). Apart from when I met him on the first week, this was actually the first time that David had been involved in my treatment.

After that, I was taken to the treatment room, where Rushil fitted a slightly different 'head clip' over my head, to be able to monitor the nanites.

"We have our new and hopefully improved nanite sensor: there's more individual sensors, so we can more accurately work out where the nanites are.... and some updated software too!". He showed me the laptop screen which showed a graphic of the 4 sets of sensors (2 sides, top and bottom jaws), plus numbers that showed how many nanites were at each position.

"And if you click on the numbers, it lets you see the individual nanite details" explained Rushil. "So, not too many active nanites left, pretty much what we're expecting. Ok, let me take a scan of your teeth" he continued, removing the head clip. Amber got the scanning kit ready, and was passing it to Rushil.

"Tell you what, would you be ok letting Amber scan you? She's been practicing on me and Sara, and she seems to be picking it up well"

"Sure, why not?". Rushil got out of the way, letting Amber take over the main seat. She fitted me with lip retractors, got me to lean back, adjusted the seat, pointed the light at my mouth and started to scan my teeth. I was able to watch what she was doing on the screen up above the light, while she was both looking in my mouth, but mainly at her monitor.

"It's a bit like using a mouse, the more you get used to it, the less you'll need to look inside the patient's mouth, and the more you can watch the results on your screen" Rushil said to Amber. Whilst initially seeming to be a bit tense, she soon relaxed, and while she took a bit longer than Sara took last week, she seemed to do a pretty good job.

"Well done, Amber, that looks just fine!". Amber seemed very happy with herself, she had a big smile on her face.   

After that, Amber took me for my XRays. When I got back, Sara was in the treatment room.

"Rushil has gone off to program up the next batch of nanites, he'll be back soon. So, you think there's been a little bit of movement.... let's take a look". Sara was comparing this week's scans of my mouth to last week's.

"Hmm, hard to tell, let's see if the XRays are any better". Sara brought up last week's and this week's XRays, and superimposed them. "Again, hard to tell, but I think I can see a tiny bit of difference. Whether it's because of the nanites, or the fact that we took out your wisdom teeth, I'm not 100% sure, but I'm not worried, we'll see in another week or two. So, you said in your diary that you've had no issues?"

"Yeah, apart from a slight headache yesterday, I've been absolutely fine"

"That's good, we've not had any reports from our other patients either, so things are looking good.". The door opened, and Rushil came in.

"I've got this week's nanites programmed up: they're a slightly updated version from what you currently have - initial tests are showing that they are lasting a little bit longer. We're hoping that, as we improve the technology, we'll get their lifetime up to several weeks, maybe as long as a month, so patients won't need quite as many visits to their orthodontist" explained Rushil

The procedure was the same as last week: Fit the 'head monitor' and hook me up so they can also monitor my 'vitals', take some baseline figures, inject the nanites, watch me for a while, then get me to do some light exercises. Along the way, Amber went and got us all some coffees.

"Well, almost all the new nanites have got to your jaws, and are reporting back that they have located the 'targets', so it's all looking good" said Rushil. I was unhooked from the various monitoring systems, and pronounced 'fit to go'.

"So, how's the other patients getting on then?" I asked

"So far, pretty much the same as you. No side effects, undetectable movement. To be honest, we're not too worried at the moment about how quick the treatment is, more that it's happening the way we want. We're artificially slowing the nanites to start with, but if everything goes well, then we'll speed things up over the next few weeks.

We chatted for a few minutes, as Amber tidied the treatment room up.

"I'm ready to go, if that's ok with you guys" said Amber

"In that case, would you mind walking Jacob out on your way?"

"Sure, no problem.... when you're ready, Jacob"