Measles May First Present in the Oral Cavity

A big thank you to the American Dental Association for a much needed reminder to professionals that measles often appear first in the mouth.

Many of us were given only a cursory training of the oral symptoms of measles since for all intents & purposes the disease had been eradicated in the U.S.  However, with many parents now opting to forgo immunization, we are now seeing the first large measles outbreaks in decades.

To help practitioners, the ADA sent out the following in Monday's ADA Morning Huddle email.  My hats off to the ADA for helping doctors help their patients!  Here is the info with a link:

The American Dental Association (3/2, Williams) reports that although “the first signs of measles occur typically in the head and neck region and in the oral cavity...some dentists may not have had the occasion to actually see these symptoms due to years of successful control of the disease.” American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry spokeswoman Dr. Catherine Flaitz “advises dentists to be prepared in the event a patient shows up with certain signs and symptoms of the disease,” adding that a parent may first seek care from a dentist due to the fact that measles first presents in the head and neck region. The three main signs in the oral cavity of measles are koplik spots, atypical gingivitis with pustules and necrosis, and operculitis.

Kavo QuatroCare Plus Evaluation Starting Soon

I just got word on Monday that in the not too distant future (meaning soon) I'll be evaluating the Kavo QuatroCare Plus handpiece maintenance system.

For those of you not familiar with it, the device is a self contained lubrication and cleaning unit that does all of the pre-sterilization handpiece tasks automatically.  You basically attach your handpieces to the unit and it performs all functions that need to be taken care of internally to assure your handpieces are ready for their next use.

Let's face it, like it or not, the handpiece is pretty much the heart and soul of most dental practices and we rely on them tremendously.  They also go through quite a lot when you consider the stresses they are under both from clinical applications as well as from sterilization cycles.  The QuatroCare Plus ensures proper internal maintenance to help keep your repair costs down.

Here's what Kavo has to say about it:

Benefits of Dental Maintenance with KaVo

More than 70% of all handpiece failures are due to insufficient maintenance! KaVo QUATTROcare Plus puts an end to the following:

• Time consuming and expensive individual maintenance and handpiece repair 
• Extensive staff training and complaints
• Guesswork and cutting corners
• Oily mess
• Handpiece repair and maintenance headaches

The QUATTROcare Plus Dental Handpiece Maintenance System provides:

• Consistent and extremely efficient dental maintenance of up to four handpieces on one cycle - with the push of a button
• Enormous time, and therefore cost, savings for your dental office
• Protection of your valuable handpiece investment
• New chuck care feature

I'm excited to get this one going as it seems like we've been dealing with more handpiece repairs lately.  I'll be providing more info, once we get the test rolling.

Back from Chicago...

After 8 days... yes you read that right, 8 days, I've returned from my Chicago trip.

The 150th Chicago MidWinter Meeting is now over, but wow what a meeting it was!

The Chicago Dental Society has this down to a fine art.  The MidWinter meeting is one that I've attended for probably the last 20 years or so.  Sometimes I've been there as an invited speaker, but on years where I'm not lecturing, I still make sure to be there simply because it is one of the best meetings in the U.S.  This year was no exception.

Over 27,000 people attended this year's meeting and if you didn't have a good time there, well you have no one to blame but yourself.  The meeting is always well planned and well executed.  As I said above, the folks at the CDS have got this thing down.  Needless to say, count me in for next year.

My week was a whirlwind of work, meetings, and presentations.  On Monday I was fortunate enough to be the first official CE program videoed at the brand new ADA Studios.  I had 2 one hour CE lectures "in the can" by midafternoon.  Look for lots of online CE to come from this new ADA endeavour.  On Tuesday I had a work related meeting with Centric Learning Systems, a new venture that I'm part of.  The meeting resulted in some work that took most of the day.  However, I *did* manage to sneak a lunch in at the famous Billy Goat Tavern.

Wednesday was the annual editorial meeting for Dental Products Report.  I can't say a lot about our future plans, but trust me when I say you'll be seeing some amazing stuff coming along.  Wednesday night was the Oral Health Alliance Gala where I got to wear my tux and mingle with lots of people in the dental industry.

Thursday was the first day of the MidWinter meeting and I spent most of the day running from one meeting to another.  That night brought the Voco party (great job Nicole!) and then dinner with some great friends.

Friday started my work day at 7:00 as we tried to do the Best of Class voting in the morning for once.  After that experiment we decided to move it back to an evening time.  As soon as the BOC voting was over, it was more meetings for the remainder of the day and then off to a nice event hosted by AMD lasers and then a get together with the good people at Danville Materials.

Wrapping up my work week was Saturday where I spent the whole day lecturing.  I was amazed and honored by how many people were there for both my morning and afternoon sessions.  Considering it was Saturday and severely cold, I thought most people would stay home.  They didn't though and we had a blast talking about technology in dentistry.

I couldn't get home until Sunday though.  Eight days on the road is tough.  It may not sound that bad, but trust me when I say that when your hotel room starts to feel like an apartment, that's not a good thing.  Nothing felt better than touching down back in The Land of Oz Sunday afternoon.

Some fun and exciting things are on tap for the rest of 2015.  My first project will be working with a glasses mounted camera that will start next week.  More updates as things progress...

Check Out This Constantly Updating Page of the Chicago MidWinter Meeting

A short post today as I'm incredibly busy here in Chicago.  I'm digging for all kinds of good info to share with all of you over the months ahead.

If you weren't able to make it to Chicago, fear not!  Dental Products Report has created a web page that will be constantly updated throughout the meeting.

So... even if you can't be here, you can still see what's going on by checking the page on a regular basis.

The page is located here, enjoy!

FAA Allows Southwest to Continue Flying Planes that Missed Inspections

With the Chicago Dental Society's MidWinter Meeting happening this week, dentists from all over the country will be heading to The Windy City to see & enjoy one of the top 3 dental meetings in the US.

Because of that, I thought I'd make today's post about the FAA's decision yesterday regarding the Southwest fleet.

I will state the  most important part of this post right here: The FAA has ruled that the Southwest planes will be allowed to fly.

So if you are planning on Southwest to get you to Chicago, everything is just fine.

What's the news behind all of this?

Simply put, Southwest somehow missed doing an inspection on some of their jets.  The inspection was checking on a hydraulic system used to control the plane's rudder if the main system fails.  On Tuesday, Southwest somehow figured out the inspections had been missed.  Upon realizing the snafu, Southwest immediately grounded the involved planes and notified the FAA.

The grounding put 128 planes, about 20% of the planes the company owns, out of service.  That, of course, resulted in a scheduling nightmare of Stephen King proportions.

80 Southwest flights were cancelled on Tuesday and another 19 will probably be cancelled today (Wednesday February 25).  I've been traveling when something like this happens (for me it was control tower fire at Chicago's Midway) and believe me when I say the chaos and stress it creates is palpable.

I've got to give the FAA a pat on the back for what they did here.  Realizing the problems the grounding was causing, FAA consulted with Southwest and Boeing (the manufacturer of the aircraft involved) and gave the go ahead for the planes to continue to fly while the inspections were made.  The inspection process cannot be too involved as Southwest has stated "a good portion" of them have already been made and that more would be made overnight.

That means that the affect on passengers will be minimal.  That's great news for those of us involved in the Chicago MidWinter Meeting (I'm doing 2 lectures on Saturday).

This whole saga, while not without it stresses and angst, gives me a bit of a "feel good" moment.  By that I mean Southwest did the right thing when they realized what had happened.  Even though they knew there would be bad press, they grounded the planes and called the FAA.  They didn't try to hide it or do the inspections on the sly.  They owned up to the problem... and they fixed it.  They did the right thing & I respect that.  Too often today we see just the opposite.

For the FAA, they saw what would happen if one-fifth of the Southwest fleet was out of service.  They consulted with the plane's creator & fabricator, determined there was minimal risk, and worked with Southwest to make sure the inspections were done quickly while still keeping planes in the air.

A good handling of a tough situation by all involved.  Now let the Chicago MidWinter begin!!!

Oh, and if you are coming in for the meeting, bring warm clothes... it's cold here!

Should You Floss Before or After You Brush Your Teeth?

For years the debate has raged back and forth over whether it's better to floss before you brush or afterwards.

Now Self magazine has the answer... or at least they've weighed in with an opinion from a dentist.

Personally, I've always advocated before.  My logic has been that flossing gets plaque & debris out from in between your teeth, but it's still there... somewhere.

Brushing then helps remove the material completely and then you spit it all in the sink.

Am I right here?

Let's see what Self has to say:

It's not a question of if you should floss, but a matter of when. And correctly timing the daily habit can have a major impact on your dental health—here's what the experts have to say in SELF's March issue.

Floss before you brush—it loosens the food and plaque between teeth and under gums, so brushing can sweep them away, says Matthew Nejad, D.D.S., a dentist in private practice in Beverly Hills, California, and faculty member at the University of Southern California Ostrow School of Dentistry.

Of course any flossing is better than none (your toothbrush can’t access the tight spaces between your teeth and in gums), but waiting until after brushing allows particles to settle back into the teeth. Getting rid of them is key to prevent cavities, bad breath and gum disease. The American Dental Association recommends flossing at least once per day. (Extra credit if you floss every time you brush.) To remind yourself, stash floss by your toothbrush, where you’ll see it. The extra 30 seconds it adds to your morning and evening routine will be well worth it. 

AV-Test ”Best Protection” award for F-Secure

For years now I've been raving about the great protection given by antivirus company F-Secure.  I've used them a long time and have always been impressed with the performance & value of the program.

Well, now it seems the industry is agreeing with me.  The company  has won the coveted AV-Test award.  Here are the details courtesy of the F-Secure:

This is a day when it feels especially good to be working for F-Secure. It is not every day that you can get the much-sought-after “Best Protection” award from one of the best-known independent IT-Security institutes such as AV-TEST.

Thanks to the persistent work in our Labs, we have been able to stay ahead of the bad guys and have been able to develop detection technologies against Windows malware that not only block the known viruses, but actually also prevent emerging new threats.