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I had a great trip to Maine speaking in Augusta and then giving a hands on program for the Maine AGD. That is, it was a great trip if you don’t count the seven hour delay getting there, the 3 hours of sleep before the lecture and the best part was the lost luggage. It is still missing. Travel is so glamorous
On the other hand the Maine countryside is pretty and the Maine dentists were wonderful.

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The Worst Technology Product Names…Ever from PC Magazine [1]
10 Terrible Tech Terms“Motherboard” and “burning and ripping” music may not be the worst tech terms you’ve ever heard of, but here are 10 tech terms that we think are.
1. Dongle (The trouble seems to be with your dongle, sir.) 2. Wall wart (Three guesses: Wal-Mart’s nickname, a nasty disease contracted from walls, or a mall power-supply brick with a male plug.) 3. PMP (Are you a Portable Media Player PIMP?) 4. Nybble (A set of four bits.) 5. Hotswapping (Sounds dirty and sweaty, but it’s the ability to remove and replace components of a computer while it is operating.) 6. Blu-ray (Poor Ray. This disc formatting war has made him blue!) 7. Burst mode (Would you really want a mode named “burst” in your camera?) 8. RAID (Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks, or bug spray.) 9. PUS (Potentially Unwanted Software that just sounds gross.) 10. Wiki (We’re all familiar with Wikipedia, but the actual term comes from the Hawaiian word “hurry up”. Okay. . .)

[1] http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2050540,00.asp

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 Medigenic Medical Keyboard [1]
Infection Control Begins at the Entry LevelComputer keyboards are everywhere in healthcare facilities. Today, smarter prevention and control of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are driving the need for an infection-control keyboard: a new generation designed specifically for medical environments.
I have tried several of these types of cleansable keyboards and so far this is my favorite.

[1] http://www.advanced-input.com/medigenic.html

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Dental Economics – Dental Practice Optimization ­- how you become an effective CEO dentist [1]

Sikka Software Corporation offers the first product to integrate accounting systems with practice-management systems. Dental Practice Optimizer™, or DPO, reads data automatically from both practice-management and financial systems – no manual input is necessary.

[1] http://de.pennnet.com/articles/article_display.cfm?Section=ARTCL&C=Dept&ARTICLE_ID=276568&KEYWORDS=sikka&p=54

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Educational scholarships are avaiolable for dental offices and team members to attend the JP [1] Mastership series. The criteria are listed below. The first course will be presented in San Diego Jan 11–13. Look here [2] for details.
1)  Utilization of Arestin as a part of your Periodontal Treatment Plans
2)  Submission of 10 case studies to be completed as a part of the course curriculum.  A portion of the case study will be presented during Session II of the Mastership Certification course.

[1] http://www.jpconsultants.com/home.htm
[2] http://www.jpconsultants.com/mastership_certification.htm

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News from PC Magazine: [1]

Nikon Introduces Its Cheapest D-SLR Yet By Terry Sullivan
As if this year’s D-SLR war wasn’t already intense enough, Nikon has again upped the ante with its latest low-end D-SLR, the D40. At 6.1 megapixels, it’s destined to replace the D50 as Nikon’s entry-level D-SLR for those looking to step up from a point-and-shoot digital camera, though the D50 will remain in the product line for now. But the real big news here is price: It’s going to list for $599.95 with a new Nikon 18-to-55-mm Nikkor zoom lens. Nikon says it hopes to have the units in stores by this December, making this a hot holiday product.
For good clinical photos an SLR camera is nice. However the basic camera above will need some accessories to be really useful. Intraoral images are best with a 100mm zoom lens. These lenses sell for $400 to $600. Also a digital ring flash will give even full light. Ring flashes also retail for $400 to $600. The pop up flash that is built in will tend to produce shadows.a great source for these accessories is Photomed [2]. Photomed also provides complete SLR dental packages with all the accessories starting at $2,100.

[1] http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2059797,00.asp
[2] http://www.photomed.net/

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What is worse than training someone and having them leave?
 
Not training someone and having then stay!

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One of the great opportunities we had at the Kodak users meeting was to meet and speak with most of the top executives in the dental division. These are the people directly involved in the pending sale of the Kodak health care division. They can not ethically or legally reveal details of the ongoing negotiations however everyone of them was excited about the future and the new opportunities for Kodak dental systems and the dentists they serve.
Some users are understandably concerned about the announced strategic changes at Kodak. However from everything I have been able to discover and from past experience I do not believe there is anything to worry about. Most likely the dentists will end up being better served. In the past year or so there have been a number of similar changes, for example Schick was sold to Sirona, Gendex and Dexis were sold as was Kavo. These brands are continuing to prosper and the products are being supported.

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I just got back from the Kodak Users meeting in Atlanta. These meetings are a tremendous resource for dentists using the various Kodak dental products. If you have not attended a meeting in the past you should plan on going next year. These meetings are great for both the dentist and the dental team.
[1]
There were a number of new products on display. These included the newest version 12 of Softdent, The new redesigned 6100 radiography sensors with the cord in the back and the amazing cone beam CT Iluma [2]. Cone Beam CT must be seen to be appreciated. It has already revolutionized implant placement and is now being used in Ortho. Eventually I believe this technology will dominate all of the diagnostic radiography we use in dentistry.

[1] http://http://www.ilumact.com/
[2] http://www.ilumact.com/

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