Why can't technology catch up?

I have this rant every time I go to the dentist. It begins with the framework of us being a very technological society. People living 15-20 years ago wouldn't recognize our lifestyles at this point. Small, tiny portable phones are capable of ordering a pizza or giving us a map of Machu Pichu. We take organs out of dead people and place them into living people. I write something on a computer screen here and almost instantly someone on the other side of the planet can read it. All that's pretty neat.

With that in mind, why is the dental world still using the tiny little hook?

Surely we can do better than this. It doesn't matter what office I'm in. I could go to Dr. Bob Marley, wolf down the complimentary brownies in the waiting room, and I'll still be tense when the sharp little hook is coming toward my very soft gum tissue. During the scraping I'm a full-blown body cramp. It's an especially nice touch to have hooks on either side of the torture instrument. This way I can contemplate on the hook inches from my eyes (another tender part of my body) as the other works me over.

It's 2008. I watched Val Kilmer do wonders with lasers in "Real Genius." You're telling me we can't get a teeny, tiny version of that to zap the tartar off my teeth? We have lasers that shoot into people's eyes and give them perfect vision! Take that one, ramp it up a bit, and replace the tiny hook!

Another recent advancement has replaced the twirly-brush thing, which kind of resembles a small circular buffer for your teeth. Sandblasting technology apparently has now advanced to give us the new teeth-cleaner. Not sure if I'm on board with this step. It felt like a small version of those cement-cutting saws that need water flowing on them at all times, except this was going on in my mouth. It was explained to me that this tool gets the stuff between teeth the rolly-dohickey didn't, but that just made me wonder if it was worth getting rid of that stuff in between.

My disappointment with technology started with those X-ray specs in the back of comic books. Didn't work at all. I've given up on the flying car coming around. Just give me a replacement for the tiny hook and I'll be happy, at least twice a year.