PediSedate: Dentist's Game Boy kit knocks kids unconscious

By Matt Hickey on 22 April 2009, 10:41am

Sometimes we hear about gadgets that are made for good but could definitely be used for evil. Take the PediSedate, a combined gaming device and sedation machine.

It's essentially a Game Boy system modified to distract children between the ages of 3 and 9 with Tetris or some other game while they're pumped full of nitrous oxide. The aim is to knock them unconscious for dental surgery. It sounds evil, even though it's intended to make things easier on the child.

But that's not all it does. The colourful headset includes systems to monitor the patient, such as a pulse-oximeter to adjust the flow of gas in real-time, meaning it's safer for the patient than just raw gas.

Boston-area anaesthetist Dr Geoffrey Hart, the company's founder, received grants totalling $1.8m (£1.2m) from the National Institutes of Health and the Albert Einstein Society to make his vision into a product. New England product design company Design Continuum delivered prototypes.

There's no word on whether a Nintendo DSi version might be in the works, but we wouldn't rule it out.