From the category archives:

Office Design

Six steps to developing a high tech dental office

February 2, 2012

1. Begin with the End in Mind:
Have a plan and a goal before you start
2. Establish a technology infrastructure:
Integrated practice management software
Computers networked in the treatment rooms
3. Add the “Big 2”:
Digital images
Digital radiography
4. Non-dental programs:
Word processing
Checkbook
Anti virus
5. Add advanced dental applications:
CAD CAM
Digital Diagnostics
Computerized probes
6. Keep a future focus; be open to evolving technologies:
Internet
3D Images
Mobile

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Value Proposition for Nomad

January 25, 2012
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5 Great Tablets at CES 2012

January 18, 2012

From PC Magazine.
 Tablets are becoming thinner, lighter, more powerful, and more affordable than ever. Whether it’s a new dual-screen form factor, transforming dock, or sub-$200 price tag, tablets are poised to make significant strides in 2012.
via 5 Great Tablets at CES 2012 – Slideshow from PCMag.com.
Tablets were big news at CES last year. They are [...]

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Study Again Shows Hand Helds are Safe

January 18, 2012

From Dr. Bicuspid (Registration Required). The article notes that the research  confirms the safety of Nomad (one of my favorite products) and that there are 6000 handheld devices in use in the US.
January 16, 2012 — Dental care providers and their patients need not worry about radiation exposure when using the Nomad handheld intraoral xray device [...]

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HP TouchSmart 9300 Elite

December 5, 2011

Dentists often ask about touch screens for the treatment rooms. I am not sure this is a good idea. Touch screens offer some minimal asepsis benefits but require the user to go to the screen to enter data or access something, like an x-ray and I believe the actual work-flow of a treatment room is [...]

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Nomad Benefits

September 2, 2011

One of my favorite products is the Nomad handheld x-ray machine. The Nomad is obviously economical and flexible but it is not so obviously a great benefit to certain patients. For example, wheelchair patients.
In the past wheelchair bound patients would either have to transfer to the dental chair, which was often very difficult or impossible, [...]

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Guide to “Computers in the Back”

September 1, 2011

As a dental practice consultant, I’ve observed one of the fastest growing trends in dentistry is putting computers in the treatment rooms. The question then arises…OK now that I have all these computers, where the heck do I put this stuff?  Many dentists either just assume there is no room for a computer or they stuff [...]

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Vudu Streaming Video

August 25, 2011

If you want to use video to entertain or distract patients in the dental office do not get a DVD player just use your Internet connection and stream movies or TV to them via a treatment room monitor, an iPad or even video glasses. The newest online movie system is Vudu which is reviewed below.
Vudu, [...]

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Treatment Room Monitors

August 15, 2011

Pole Mounts
Placing computer monitors in the treatment rooms so that both the patient and the dental team can use them is a challenge. If your dental chair/unit has a light pole the obvious solution is a pole mount. These work, however they are less stable than wall or ceiling mounts. Every time the light or [...]

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MythBusters Episode 135: Hidden Nasties

August 2, 2011

According to the semi scientific results from the TV show Mythbusters computer keyboards have more “nasty” germs than a toilet seat.
Finally, Adam and Jamie decided they needed a larger sample size to provide better results. They enlisted a group of biology students at UC Berkeley to collect more samples from the top five dirtiest surfaces. [...]

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Inventory Management

July 29, 2011

Cubex uses a digital cabinet to store inventory and track usage. An online management program called SIM (Smart Inventory Manager) gathers the data, and even places orders automatically as needed.
One of the first things most dentists and team members notice is that the Cubex cabinet seems much too small to hold all your supplies. The [...]

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Magna Vu

July 14, 2011

The MagnaVu consists of a high quality digital camera, precision optics, a bright LED light, a mounting system and a monitor to display what the camera is capturing. The camera optics allow for 23x optical zoom with additional digital zoom up to 46x. For comparison most dental loupes have between 2.5x and 4.5x magnification and [...]

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Dental Computer Types

June 29, 2011

Most dental offices will need three different types of computers: a server, business workstations and clinical workstations. Each computer type will have different specifications depending on the job it must do. Specs and available options change so quickly it is more useful to present a price range for each type than component specifications.
Server:  This is [...]

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Not Just for Kids

June 26, 2011

From Lorne Lavin
Keeping your keyboards clean for any dental practice can be a chore. One annoying thing is that in order to really clean it well, you need to either disconnect the cable from the computer or turn off the computer. ToddlerTrap, which was meant to lock kids out of your computer (and isn’t actually [...]

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Law of Donuts

June 13, 2011

Multiple monitors are valuable everywhere in the dental office. Two in the treatment room; one for the patient and one for the office. Two at the font desk one for the chart and one for the schedule. And three or four for the dentist to treatment plan; one for the chart, one for the photos, one [...]

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Technology-Into-Furniture Integration

June 8, 2011

Doug Mockett is a great resource for hard to find well designed even elegant technology accessories and hardware.
How to get power/voice/data connections to the middle of a floor without core drills, floor trenching, power poles, or raised flooring?
via Power Track – Technology-Into-Furniture Integration – Doug Mockett.com.

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Tower Placement

June 6, 2011

Do not put the tower on the floor, it is likely to be damaged from cleaning activities; it could easily get wet from spills or mopping and it will pick up lots of dirt and dust. It needs to be close to a power supply and allow access in and out for various cables. For [...]

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Fixed LCD wall mount

May 25, 2011

Nice option for the small monitor on the rear wall behind the patient.

The FM 25 LCD wall mount places your monitor 2.25″ from the wall.
via Fixed LCD wall mount – ICWDental.com.

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Webinar: Technology in the Treatment Room

May 14, 2011

If you missed the Sesame webinar on technology in the treatment room you can get the archived version here.

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Run and hide no more

May 11, 2011

Following is a link to an article I wrote for RDH Magazine on Hand Held X-Rays.
We’ve had X-ray safety protocol drilled into us since day one, and staying in the room and holding the thing is a huge no-no. We need to run from the room, preferably behind several walls and layers of lead, before we [...]

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