Wash and Disinfect Your New Keyboard from Econo-Keys

How about this great little keyboard/mouse (touchpad) I found at the Greater NY Dental Meeting. Small footprint and wireless. I put the little USB dongle into my computer and was typing in less than a minute. It seems like the perfect input device for a dental treatment room. Look at their website for an array of products like this. http://www.econo-keys.com/

3M moving Brontes unit out of Massachusetts

I worked with the Brontes team from the beginning in 2005 (or was it 2004?) and helped develop the clinical aspect of the intraoral impression scanner. It was acquired by 3M four years ago and the operation is now being moved to St Paul as, according to those I spoke with at 3M, it will allow better control of development and marketing of the LAVA COS product. I remember the first time I saw the "unit'- about 6 feet of wires and circuit boards that would ultimately be housed in a hand-held wand. The move is chronicled in an interesting article in the Boston Globe.
Brontes office closing is latest bite out of the Bay State’s R&D lab
http://bit.ly/ayvZaX

ADA Annual Session quick update

I am off to the airport and will be busy catching up at home. Here is a very brief summary of a few new things I saw at the ADA meeting in Orlando that is ending today 10/12. As I go through my notes there may be additions and of course more information.

Cariescan- a new caries detector that uses electrical impedance similar to apex locators. It shows porosity and ccan give an acccurate rendering of the location and size of the carious lesion but usingthe probe from occusal, buccal and lingual. www.cariescan.com

Orascoptic Freedom- new loupes with battery pack in the headset www.orascoptic.com

CAO group- new home bleaching product with wax forms that stay on securely ( you have to leave them on for an hour) www.caogroup.ccom

Philips Acquires Discus - This was the big news. It will be interesting to see if Discus stays as a whole or if parts are spun off.

http://www.newscenter.philips.com/main/standard/news/press/2010/20101011_discus_holdings.wpd

Eco Dentistry Association www.ecodentistry.org go green in your dental practice. It goes beyond fewer disposables- dental manufacturers are looking at ways to redesign products to reduce energy consumption and waste.

Oragenics- www.oragenics.com probiotics to reduce periodontal and caries producing oral organisms with simple daily mints.

Dental Sharing www.dentalsharing.com HIPAA compliant simple system to allow exchange of dental images and information among offices over the internet instead of email.

Eaglesoft releases version 16 patterson.eaglesoft.net . Users have many off their suggestions included in this update

Vidar xray scanner www.vidar.com unit digitizes xrays -fmx in (clear) mount, pan or other sizes. Not only scans but digitally enhances.

DentalEz (Star) www.dentalez.com change over to LEDs in the swivel connector for brighter and longer lasting fiberoptics.

Myray www.myrayamerica.com introduces X-Pod- a digital sensor attached to an iPod type device that displays and stores the images. Interesting entry for non networked offices.

Brush and zoom

Reported this AM. Philips has acquired Discus Dental. These rumors have been around for a while. It is an interesting fit for Philips as they are in the consumer health care market.  Discus also has many other dental products and processes. They recently got into the laser market with the acquisition of Zap laser. Should be interesting. Since I am at the ADA meeting today the buzz should give more insight for more info.

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.