Physics Forceps?

One reason I proabably migrated to the tech side of dentistry, is the fact that I hate surgery and refer out 99% of extractions. I was "coerced" into looking at these novel "forceps". After seeing them and getting DVD, online and telephone training I realized that these are not really forceps. They are simple elevators using class 1 or class 2 lever LIGHT forces. If you look at them you will think they are tools of destruction. Far from it. Without posting the gory photos, today I was able to prep an anterior bridge and remove two failed post/core crowns that had little or no tooth structure above the ridge. This patient had been told that we were going to prep and temp and then send her to the surgeon. She saved the trip, I had complete control of the case and all are happy ( and I got paid for the extractions.....). Email me directly for details and more info. I may have embarked on a new career ( or just got lucky).
http://www.physicsforceps.com/ (Golden Misch)

What Implant Is That?

Lorne Lavine just found this very useful site. www.whatimplantisthat.com . If you have a radiograph of an implant and are not sure what it is, here is a great library. The site also asks its viewers and manufacturers to add to the library and fill in some of the blanks. This will be very useful when new patient shows up in your office. There is a "filter" that allows you to put in certain characteristics so that you don't have to scroll through almost 200 images.

The site is put together by Nate Farley, DDS and Kent Howell, DMD from Columbus OH. Thanks guys.

Cameras With GPS

Geotagging is a word that will show up in your new digital cameras. Many new models have built in GPS chips that tag the photo that you take with a location. You will never have to ask- "where was that?" Casio (EX-10HG) and Sony (DSC-TX7 ) are just 2 models with this feature. They were announced earlier this year and are supposed to hit the shelves any day.

Chicago MidWinter Meeting

If you must go to one meeting and don't mind the cold weather, this one has it all. My week started with a meeting with the principles of Dentra, a new Practice Management analysis program. You can get a preview at http://www.dentra.com/ . Then off to the Oral Health America gala which is a benefit for this organization. $400,000 was raised to help children have access to dental care. You can learn about their good work at http://www.oralhealthamerica.org/ . This black tie (optional) event is a who's who of dentistry and a chance to see me in a tux.

From that point on it was meeting after meeting- in fact Thursday and Friday were pretty much every hour on the hour. I was able to update on new products (electronic bruxing monitor from Finland), reincarnations of companies ( see the new Discus and new Denmat), updates in intraoral scanning as well as lab scanning of impressions, and more. Also announcement of an interesting merger of SciCan, MicroMega and SycoTec. Here are a few of the interesting items:

Apex locator that can read your files while in the handpiece http://www.medicnrg.com/
New research on performance enhancing mouthguards http://www.bitetech.com/
New compact inexpensive digital camera http://www.dinecorp.com/
Totally cleanable wireless computer keyboard http://www.cleankeys.com/
Caries detection with fluorescence ( reported here last year) http://www.soprolife.com/
New High def online CE http://www.dentaledu.tv/
and lots of secret new stuff......
I did miss my meeting with the new digital intraoral scanner from Israel and I apologize to my friends there at http://www.densys3d.com/ I will give a full report here as soon as I update my information.

Of course there was plenty of social time, meeting up with old friends, making many new ones, going to a great event at the top of the Sears tower ( going out on the glass balcony on the 103 floor) and staying up very late. Chicago is a great city and I will not be waiting until next February to get back there.

Curve Hero- new software with your server on the web

Curve Dental has introduced a web based Practice Management system that is run over the Internet with a simple web browser interface.

As web-based dental software Curve Hero offers advantages over traditional client/server applications with respect to implementation costs, convenience and data security. Because the software only requires a browser and an Internet connection, expensive investments in hardware, servers and IT services are not required. The convenience of the web allows the practice to access patient data from any location at any time, which is more flexible to varying lifestyle preferences. With patient data stored off-site at redundant and secure data centers, the practice is not threatened by theft, natural disaster or local hardware failure, greatly simplifying business continuity and disaster planning.


For more info call 888-910-4376 or visit http://www.curvedental.com/

Droid again

New app for Droid (Blogaway) that apparently allows me to put up a quick blog post. Let's see.......

Another Caries Detection System?

It started with DiagNodent. Then Midwest Caries ID. We have just seen the introduction of Spectra from Air Techniques. We are about to get SoproLife from Acteon. The Canary System from Canada was announced and Lantis Laser has been talking about Optical Coherence Tomography to be arriving any day. Now from Great Britain is CarieScan, which has an LED screen that gives a numerical as well as colored lights to indicate caries. Information can be gotten at www.cariescan.com . I will try and make some sense of all of this soon.

Google to Introduce URL Shortener

Many people use free services like www.tinyurl.com or www.bit.ly in order to compress long url's for use in forwarding, twitter, facebook and the like. Google will be putting their own version up soon. Here is the url
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/introducing-googles-own-url-shortener/15482/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SearchEngineJournal+%28Search+Engine+Journal%29

or in tiny url: http://tinyurl.com/googleshorten

or bit.ly http://bit.ly/googleshorten

It will be called : http://goo.gl/ and is only available right now for "google products".

Droid Gets an Update

On December 11, the Droid received an "Over The Air" update. This changed the front screen with the lock/unlock as well as sound on/off slidebar. It would still be better if all you had to do was click or touch on but it is a bit better. Also noticeable are improvements to the camera. Supposedly the battery usage is improved- I will see about that- I barely get a day out of the battery if I am using it with emails, phone calls, checking twitter, facebook and the like- isn't that what it is supposed to be used for??? I did buy an extra battery and extra travel charger.



There are also a lot of new "apps" although many are pretty bad- there are reviews available right on the Droid "Marketplace" with no holds barred. I have found the horizontal on-screen keyboard to be accurate and actually better than the pull out keyboard. The auto-correction and intelligent word guessing is great, and it learns your common words as you continue to use it and speed up your typing. If there were an option for no keyboard which would make this thinner and lighter I would go for it.



The voice recognition for searching has been very accurate and very helpful if you are driving and want to call someone in your contact list or need directions to the nearest fast food place- just ask it. I guess I am keeping it.

Edgar Garrison will be missed

My good friend and dental icon, Edgar Garrison passed away November 29. When Edgar was at his Garrison Dental Solutions booth or anywhere at a dental meting, he always had a big grin and a large hello to all he knew and those he did not. His sons Tom and John as well as any staff members always carry this attitude which helped in building their successful businesses. I always made it a point to find him no matter how busy I was at a meeting. My staff had the pleasure of meeting him at the ADA San Antonio and still talk about this "charming" man. He will be missed. Some of his life's details are here:

http://www.garrisondental.com/news/elg_112909.cfm

Oral Cancer Might Be Detected In Saliva Test For CD44

Researchers at Univeristy of Miami have found that patients with oral cancer carry a protein called CD44. They have found a method to find its prescence in saliva. At this point more study is of course necessary.
http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/14/3/735.abstract
and
http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/ymhn/article/PIIS0194599801078731/abstract

GNY products- Acteon SoproLife

There were a few new products but Acteon launched its new caries detection system, SoproLife. (Light Induced Fluorescence Evaluator ). Unfortunately the paperwork for approvals for sale ( 510K) did not come in time for the meeting although it is due any day. Thus they could not actually sell this product but could show it. I was lucky enough to get a good look at the IDS in March and have been in touch with the developers in France and have been helping in assessing this product and giving some clinical input. Here is their website with some basic information. I will publish some of my own clinical photos when it is appropriate.

http://www.soprolife.com/

Greater New York Meeting- Part 1

The meeting was a success for the GNY staff but I am not sure the exhibitors were the beneficiaries. There were a number of classes right on the exhibit floor in "fishbowls" that were packed. There was a larger live operatory and an smaller one which also was packed- the large one seemed to have 200 or so seats. I watched a patient receiving some mini implants- the procedure was of course projected on the big screen. There were a myriad of courses that were very well attended- I had a chance to go into a number of rooms as I was helping the Yankee meeting people with some scouting. Thus, the exhibit floor seemed a bit sparser than usual.

From an education standpoint, this is a great step- above and beyond the typical classroom teaching. The big meetings have started to get a little stale and repetitive. Plus online CE has allowed many dentists and dental professionals to get their training ( and credits) from home. The economy for sure has kept spending down a bit and limited expensive travel related expenses. Of course as this year comes to a close, there are tax advantages to make those large purchases right now. In my next post I will go over some of the details of products and people who caught my eye.

Call Center - the movie

As I work around the new Droid I have been in contact with several blogs and user forums. I may have to call support at some time which reminds me of the all time best video on customer support. This video is about 11 minutes long- hysterical.

http://tinyurl.com/callcentermovie

Motorola Verizon Google Droid

I have been a bit jealous watching my non-Verizon friends reporting with glee all about iPhones and the Pre. I was waiting for the Pre- supposedly with Verizon early 2010 as I have been a Palm OS user for years starting with the Sony Clie. Enter the Droid. I have been working with it for 5 days and have yet to figure it all out. No manual- just depending on online blogs and a "sneak" post of the not yet completed manual. The menus are NOT intuitive at all. The slide out keyboard is hard to use, especially the top row which doesn't give enough room between the characters and the slide out rim. The Calendar is hard to use and has limited functions for things like repeating an event for a certain number of days.

HOWEVER- I am keeping it. The graphics are the best I have seen. Using the web browser is a joy. You can multi-task and have several programs running simultaneously (i did find if you that if you forget to stop some the battery gets eaten alive). There is built in GPS. The issues with the calendar (and contact list) are all solved as they immediately synch with the Google online calendar and contacts. They have more functions and frankly, it is easier and faster to use them on the keyboard and monitor than the little keyboards. Oh- the keyboard- i am using the onscreen version- much easier (in landscape mode) than the slide out. It also has a dictionary that allows quick completion of words and updates these as you use them. The apps are a shorter list as it is new and you really have to sort out where the junk is, but a few have been very useful and there are a number of free ones.

The phone is the clearest cell phone I have used and it works great with bluetooth. One final thing (for now). You have the option to use the online services with the Verizon network (there's a Map for that) but you can also tie into any local WiFi network you can find. The browsing speed, which is fine, is lightning fast in those areas.

I have 30 days to return it. More as I learn.

Practiceworks on your iPhone or Blackberry Smart Phone

A revolutionary new software application from PracticeWorks Systems, LLC, equips dental professionals to manage their offices and patient needs remotely from a mobile device by providing real-time information related to common issues and scenarios that providers experience everyday.
The new PEARL module—to be initially available for iPhone and BlackBerry users—enables dentists, oral surgeons and other professionals to confidently make urgent decisions while they are out of the office. They can view and act upon real-time information related to patient and treatment details, scheduling, financials, call-backs, prescriptions and pharmacies, referring providers and more. More info at Dental Economics Dentistry IQ:

http://bit.ly/pwpearl

4 intraoral scanners on one stage

Left to right:
Patterson/Sirona/CEREC AC, 3M LAVA COS, Cadent iTero, Schein E4D

As far as I know, this is the first time all 4 current scan units have been presented together. My course at the Ohio State Dental Meeeting had representatives from each company show how each unit scans and in 2 cases, how to do a restoration design. Despite the fact this is a very competitive marketplace, we were able to make this work as a fantastic educational event. It was NOT a competition. The attendees went off after the class to the respective booths to gain further information. I have to thank the local reps as well as the corporate officials of the various companies who helped me put this together. I intend to put this on again several times in the future.

Spectra Caries Detection Unit Gets FDA Approval

I have had a chance to follow the evolution of this new device from Air Techniques which highlights carious lesions with Fluoroscopy. I will post some images and links next week as I am away in northern Maine struggling to get internet access. For now just go to www.airtechniques.com and look at the Spectra.

Blue Sky Bio-Implants and free planning software

This implant company is giving away implant planning software. It is called Blue Sky Plan and will allow you to design surgical guides. The software can be downloaded on the website and there are tutorials as well as online CE. Blue Sky Bio designs and manufactures implants, although the software is compatible with other brands. http://www.blueskybio.com/

Candy.com sold for $3 Million

This is sort of a dental post- we all love candy-more interesting is a look at the marketplace where domains are bought and sold. The big winner this year was toys.com which sold for over $5 million to ToysRUs. This one was purchased by a couple of cousins, age 23 and 31 who live near me ( I don't know them...yet). They actually have a company http://www.melvillecandycompany.com/ but hope to expand their sphere of influence and their pocketbooks with this one. Hey- if they invested that 3 mil in the market they would have about $1.8 mil now so let it ride guys. A little insight is here: http://tinyurl.com/candyweb