The Future of Dentin Bonding
            There is a good possibility that the approach to bonding composite resin to dentinal surfaces will change dramatically; and it is likely that this change will occur in the not too distant future. Ironically, the approach to adhesion will revert to that taken at the very beginning (over four decades [...]

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Check it out here The Babble [1]
As dentists we have both a legal and an ethical responsibility to protect our patient’s confidential information. If you are telling a patient what you found when you examined them, asking about a medical condition or making financial arrangements no one else in the office should hear what you are saying. Especially not another patient in an adjacent room or sitting in the reception area. Now there is a high tech device that creates a zone of privacy to protect you and your patient.

Babble is perfect for people who work in open offices and for people who work with confidential information in industries such as finance, law, medical records, human resources, homeland security and businesses regulated by HIPAA. Providing voice privacy without walls, Babble protects your spoken words from the people around you. Just add Babble to any office, open workspace or cubicle to camouflage your voice for total confidentiality…..The easy-to-use Babble features a compact footprint approximately the size of a tape dispenser. ….At the push of a button, you’ve got voice privacy on demand, rather than emitting a continuous stream of white noise. Babble is only on when you need it and can be turned off when you don’t.

[1] http://www.sonaretechnologies.com/babble.html

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Some of the high end Canon Digital cameras at CES

 
This photo was taken in low light with my cell phone, a treo 650 with an obviously shaky hand. In some ways the image is pretty poor. On the other hand when you stop to think of the technology involved to take this image it is amazing!

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There were lots and lots of companies at CES showing mounts for LCD monitors as well as larger plasma and LCD television mounts. (There was a flat panel TV over 100 inches across…awesome). The two companies I have used mostly in dental offices are Ergotron [1] and ICW [2]. Following are some other options.

Innovative [3]
Visionmount [4]
Premier [5]
Barkan [6]
Chief [7]
Orbital [8]
Promounts [9]

[1] http://www.ergotron.com/
[2] http://icwdental.com/
[3] http://www.lcdarms.com/
[4] http://https://www.sanus.com/cgi-bin/web_store.cgi?page=products/wallmount/visionmount.html&cart_id=1639188_11429
[5] http://www.premiermounts.com/
[6] http://www.barkan-eng.com/
[7] http://www.chiefmfg.com/
[8] http://orbitalholdings.com/index.html
[9] http://www.promounts.com/

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When we come into the office each morning there is a ritual we follow to get ready for the day. We turn off the alarm, unlock the front door, turn on the lights (12 different switches), adjust the draperies, turn on the compressor and vacumn, turn on each dental unit, turn on the X-Ray units, boot the computers (8 of them), turn on the sound system, turn on the TV showing Smile Channel, and of course start the coffee.
Then when we close up we do it all again the other way around.
It is now possible to do all of these tasks with a single touch of a control panel.
There were many companies showing home controls at CES. These controls are growing rapidly as a new standard Zwave makes it possible to use wireless controls in a wide variety of uses. Although the CES vendors were showing home use the same technology could easily be adapted to a small office.
Why use wireless controls? The most obvious advantage is that it saves time. The second advantage is that it is always consistent. You will never have to worry about things left on over the weekend. I believe that in a typical office these controls will easily save 30 minutes a day. 15 to open and 15 to close. At $15 an hour and working 192 days a year the savings will be $1,440 a year.
And besides the savings it is really cool!

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One of the interesting (ugly but cool) products at CES was the Power Squid here: Trident Design, LLC. [1]
I am constantly frustrated by bulky plug in transformers hogging all the space on my power strip. Right now I have eight of them under my desk connected to the cable modem (2) speakers, routers, phone chargers and so on. The squid makes all of the outlets from the power strip or surge protector available.

[1] http://www.trident-design.com/index.htm

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I am back from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. It was huge, taking up four different convention locations. (The entire Las Vegas Convention Center, the Sands Expo, The Hilton Convention Center and the Alexis Park). It was also very crowded (More than 120,000 people). It reminded me a little of Comdex back in the day.
As with Comdex there were lots and lots of new products we will be seeing in the next year or two. The challenge is to figure out which ones will have a place in the dental office. Over the next few days I will tell you about some of the items I found and how they might help in the dental office. Actually in some cases there isn’t much of a dental use but they are so cool I included them anyway.

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Degradation of the hybrid zone
     Ever since Hashimoto in 2000 demonstrated that the hybrid zone was subject to deterioration, a number of additional papers have confirmed this concern. There are a number of potential causes for this unwelcomed problem. The first is related to an incomplete diffusion of the bonding agent into the evacuated spaces. [...]

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