Dentsply Sirona’s digital solutions powered by Google Cloud

As dentistry continues to embrace a totally digital future, the profession is going to need more online accessibility to move all of this digital data around.  Providing patients the best possible outcomes will depend on good information management strategies.  I'm excited to see this announcement from Dentsply Sirona as working with a digital leader like Google shows their commitment to helping to bring about easier data migration strategies. 

The collaboration with Google Cloud will help dentists and dental labs alike to unlock the full benefits of digital dentistry – whether they are continuing or just starting on their digital journey.

The new digital dentistry solutions will be based on six key principles:

• Enabling high-value dental care by offering excellent digital products and solutions;

• Next-generation digital workflows featuring secure and seamless sharing of data with labs and other dental practitioners;

• Easy access to data when it is needed;

• High-quality 3D visualization of dental imagery;

• Stringent data protection and security standards; and

• An innovative environment for software, data integrity and storage.

Christian Martin, Managing Director Alps Region at Google Cloud, said about this collaboration: “Dentsply Sirona is transforming the dental industry. At Google Cloud we believe that we have the right expertise, capabilities and services to strongly support Dentsply Sirona in its vision for the future of oral healthcare.”

Casey added: “This exciting collaboration will allow us to deliver on our promise: empowering millions of customers by proudly creating innovative solutions for healthy smiles. We will succeed in this by giving dentists an innovative platform to underpin the digital infrastructure of their practice and enabling a seamless workflow that helps dentists to focus on what matters most: treating their patients.”

Together, both companies will build upon a digital approach that gives dentists and labs the ownership, impact and independence that digital solutions from Dentsply Sirona can deliver.

Primeprint - an advance in automated, medical-grade 3D printing for practices and labs

Separate from the collaboration with Google Cloud, Dentsply Sirona will also launch Primeprint, a medical-grade 3D printing system for dental practices and dental labs.

With one of the highest levels of automation, Primeprint is a smart hardware and software solution that is optimized for dental applications. It runs the entire printing process, including post processing. Primeprint delivers reproducible and accurate results* with strictly biocompatible materials. The printing process meets high regulatory requirements for medical products.

"For us dentists, Primeprint turns 3D printing into an efficient application for everyday use, and that’s also great for my patients," said Dr. Mike Skramstad, dentist from Scottsdale, Arizona. "The workflow is fully automated, easy to use, as well as end-to-end, so I can both delegate and get the best possible results quickly.”

About Dentsply Sirona

Dentsply Sirona is the world’s largest manufacturer of professional dental products and technologies, with over a century of innovation and service to the dental industry and patients worldwide. Dentsply Sirona develops, manufactures, and markets a comprehensive solution offering, including dental and oral health products as well as other consumable medical devices under a strong portfolio of world class brands. Dentsply Sirona’s products provide innovative, high-quality and effective solutions to advance patient care and deliver better and safer dental care. Dentsply Sirona’s headquarters are located in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company’s shares are listed in the United States on NASDAQ under the symbol XRAY. Visit www.dentsplysirona.com for more information about Dentsply Sirona and its products.

Join Me on Saturday April 16th for a Fun 3 Hour Course from PCC in Provo, Utah

 

I am truly honored to be presenting a virtual course for my good friend and mentor Dr. Gordon Christensen and his "Practical Clinical Courses" this weekend.  The course will be live from their broadcast studio in Provo, Utah.  It will be 3 hour presentation with a 10 minute break.

I'll be discussing my favorite high tech products and how they can work for you and make a difference for you, your team, and your patients.  I would be honored to you join me and the folks at PCC.  This type of course is the one I get the most requests for.  I love being able to tell my peers about the newest tech gear and how it has made a difference for me.

Here is the course description from the PCC website: 

Join us from the convenience of your individual home or office for this LIVE course Saturday, April 16, 2022

Not every piece of technology needs to be expensive or complicated!  There are lots of relatively inexpensive “techno-nuggets” out there that can change your office and the lives of your patients for the better, without requiring a loan or a 6-week training program.  

For many years, Dr. Flucke has constantly evaluated new concepts to find the latest and greatest products and devices… so you don’t have to!  John will help you push your office to be on the leading edge and will show why and how high tech can make practicing easier, less stressful, more profitable, and improve patient outcomes.  Learn about many technologies and strategies that can improve your efficiency and patient care. This exciting course includes highly important topics, including: digital impressions, 3D printing, lasers, caries detection, and many others.  This fun and fast-paced virtual course will give you tons of info no matter where you are on the “techno-curve” in an entertaining and fun format.

Spend some time with dentistry’s “Technology Evangelist” and leave with a list of new and exciting ways to improve patient care and office efficiency the very next day. 

If you are interested in taking part, please follow this link for registration information.   

Reserve your seat and earn up to 4 CE credits!B

 

I *flat out love* my work at Dental Products Report!!!  I consider myself incredibly lucky to be part of the team at DPR.  It's a great group of individuals and everyone of us is dedicated to making the profession of dentistry better and better.

One of the things that most excites me about DPR is our continuing focus on education.  Many publications that focus on a single industry, whether it is healthcare or electronics, seem to concentrate more on the day to day running of the business than on the concept of benefitting the end result.  I feel that DPR does an outstanding job of focusing on both!  That is why I'm so proud to be a part of the team...

I also want to let all of you know that a week from Friday, which is April 22nd, I will be hosting an exciting educational event called "Bootcamp Spring 2022"!!!  The event will cover several different topics and, rather than requiring you to set your alarm clock, we have the event scheduled for the middle of the day.  That's right, from 11:00am-3:00pm Eastern Time is when the event ti taking place.  I love the fact that even if you live on the west coast, you can still make this event and receive quality information without having to get up while it is still dark outside!

You will learn about:

1. Optimizing Your Digital Presence to Shorten the Patient Journey
2. C&B and Dentures, can Goth be Supported by Small Diameter Implants, Here's How
3. Taking Back Co n tool of Your Practice & the Patient Experience3 with Chairside CAD/CAM
4. Stationary Intraoral Tomosynthesis: A New 3D Vision for Intraoral Imaging & Its Role in Dentistry

Myself and the rest of the team at Dental Products Report would be honored to have you attend.  You will get a serious amount of information that you can put to use in your practice the very next day.  I hope to see many of you there!

Envista Announces DEXIS Brand Name for Imaging Business

 Envista Holdings Corporation (NYSE: NVST) ("Envista") today announced Envista's KaVo imaging business will be re-branded as "DEXIS". Dental professionals have known the DEXIS brand as the leader in digital intraoral radiography and diagnostic software innovation for over 20 years. The DEXIS brand will now represent a full portfolio of award-winning imaging and digital solutions including cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT), handheld x-rays, intraoral scanners, sensors, and navigated surgical solutions.

Envista has been making some "brand changes" lately, and this is their latest (at least that I am aware of).  Over the years the company acquired a fair number of companies that were in the digital imaging space (as you can see in the press release below).  Those companies encompassed a fair portion of the dental imaging market.  I think in an effort to reduce redundancy in messaging and also to create economies of scale, Envista has now consolidated those other imaging companies and platforms into the DEXIS brand.  Here are all the details, straight from the folks at Envista:

DEXIS will combine other leading brands including i-CAT, Gendex, Instrumentarium, SOREDEX, and NOMAD, which with DEXIS are pioneers in x-ray generation, digital intraoral radiography, panoramic and cephalometric imaging, and 3D CBCT imaging. We have one of the largest installed bases of dental imaging devices in the industry with over 150,000 imaging devices currently utilized in dental practices. End-users of imaging devices can utilize our new diagnostics and treatment planning software suite DTX Studio to access all clinical patient images in one place, using one software.

Envista Holdings Corporation CEO Amir Aghdaei said, "We are excited to unite our imaging portfolio under the DEXIS brand and unveil our new DEXIS logo that will be featured on our entire imaging portfolio. This is one step in our continued efforts to create integrated, digital workflows that connect all our products and enable dental professionals to treat and improve more patient lives. We are living out our strategy to digitize, personalize, and democratize dentistry and look forward to the future."

Headquartered in the United States, DEXIS is present in over 50 countries and has a workforce of approximately 1,000 employees. Over the rest of 2022, the imaging portfolio will transition in branding from KaVo to DEXIS with different schedules by product and by region. DEXIS continues to value its distributor partnerships and is excited to partner with distributors around the world to bring end-to-end, digital, diagnostic workflow solutions to dental professionals.

The DEXIS sales and service teams can be reached at www.DEXIS.com. Learn more at www.DEXIS.com or @DEXISimaging on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

About Envista Holdings Corporation

Envista is a global family of more than 30 trusted dental brands, including Nobel Biocare, Ormco, and Kerr united by a shared purpose: to partner with professionals to improve lives. Envista helps its customers deliver the best possible patient care through industry-leading dental consumables, solutions, technology, and services. Our comprehensive portfolio, including dental implants and treatment options, orthodontics, and digital imaging technologies, covers a broad range of dentists' clinical needs for diagnosing, treating, and preventing dental conditions as well as improving the aesthetics of the human smile. With a foundation comprised of the proven Envista Business System (EBS) methodology, an experienced leadership team, and a strong culture grounded in continuous improvement, commitment to innovation, and deep customer focus, Envista is well equipped to meet the end-to-end needs of dental professionals worldwide. Envista is one of the largest global dental products companies, with significant market positions in some of the most attractive segments of the dental products industry. For more information, please visit www.envistaco.com.

Benco Dental and Overjet Announce New Partnership

 A new partnership unites Benco Dental, the nation's largest independent distributor of oral healthcare technology and supplies, with Overjet, the global leader in dental AI. Overjet offers an FDA-cleared dental artificial intelligence platform that can accurately deliver clinical insights to improve quality of patient care and practice performance. Through the collaboration with Benco, this software will now be accessible to dentists across the U.S.

"Doctors have embraced Benco as a trusted innovation pipeline, and Overjet is leading a machine learning revolution that, in the simplest terms, liberates them from the considerable workflow inefficiencies and clinical disadvantages of being their own radiologists," said Chuck Cohen, Benco Dental Managing Director. 

"We're excited to help speed the adoption of tech advances across oral healthcare, and our customer base has supported this commitment by investing nearly one in every four dollars they spend on the latest advances." 

Overjet increases the diagnostic precision and accuracy of dentists through advanced machine learning methods which analyze the content of dental radiographs and identify and quantify important findings. The platform is proven to:

• increase case acceptance through heightened patient education,

• automate administrative tasks by detecting coding and billing errors, and

• increase productivity through the identification of treatment opportunities.

“We are very excited to partner with Benco. This partnership is bringing two best-in-class companies together to improve oral health for all through innovation. The combination of Overjet’s powerful dental AI and Benco’s expansive dental distribution network will further accelerate the digital transformation of AI in dentistry,” said Dr. Wardah Inam, CEO and co-founder of Overjet.

“We are also thrilled to bring Overjet’s FDA-cleared cutting-edge AI technology to Benco customers to create evidence-based dentistry that boosts operational efficiency, practice performance, and patient outcomes.” 

To learn more, visit: https://www.benco.com/practice-solutions/software-solutions/overjet/

About Overjet

Overjet is the global leader in dental artificial intelligence, helping both payors and providers improve patient care. By combining deep expertise in dentistry and advanced engineering, Overjet develops accurate and quantified ways to detect pathologies, and integrates actionable insights into systems and workflows to operationalize a feedback loop between payors, providers, and patients. The company was founded by experts from MIT and Harvard School of Dental Medicine and has assembled the largest and most seasoned team of technologists and domain experts with deep AI, dental, and insurance experience. Every day, some of the largest DSOs and insurance companies rely on accurate information provided by Overjet’s FDA-cleared platform to deliver care and service to patients. Learn more at www.overjet.com.

 About Benco Dental

Benco Dental, the nation's largest independent distributor of oral healthcare technology and supplies, is Driving Dentistry Forward® with innovative solutions and our caring family culture. Our industry firsts include Painless® electronic ordering, automated supply management, BluChip® customer loyalty rewards, CenterPoint design/equipment superstores and OneVisitTM open architecture CAD/CAM. Over 1,500 dedicated associates, including 400+ sales representatives and 300+ factory-trained service technicians, serve customers at locations nationwide. Independent since 1930, Benco Dental is one of Fortune’s Best Workplaces in Health Care and Biopharma and among Pennsylvania Best Places to Work® for 12 of 15 prior years.

Philips Power Flosser Evaluation Starting Now

 

I wanted to let you all know that I am now starting a personal evaluation of the new Philips Power Flosser.  

Oral irrigators have become incredibly popular over the last decade and many patients prefer using a device that pushes water between the teeth instead of manual flossing.  Dental professionals understand that.  We know flossing can be difficult... especially to do it correctly.

So I'm excited to get my hands on the this new Philips Power Flosser and see how it performs in my hands and my mouth.

If you want more info on the device follow this link.

Here is a link to a downloadable pdf file on the Power Flosser as well!  

The High Price of Venting...

 

There is a quote from Shakespeare that I really like.  This is modernized version of the original, but it basically says "Discretion is the better part of valor."  It's a great quote because it can apply to so many of the situations we find ourselves immersed in.  Basically the idea is that many times it is just better to say nothing.

This is especially true in healthcare.  I've always felt that a patient's information or their stories are shared with the dental team and meant for only them.  If "person A" shares any kind of info with us, it stays with us.  If "person A" wants that info shared with anyone else, then they can share that info personally with them.  Our job requires discretion.  I think that is simply the honorable thing to do.

It is now also the legal thing to do.   Since HIPAA was passed and signed into law, PHI (Protected Health Information) is required to be kept secure.  If that information leaves the office, there are potential legal penalties.

That brings me to the reason for today's post.  In today's environment of social media and websites where customers can share their experiences, both good and bad, sometimes a business or practice will receive a review that they feel is unfair.

The story behind today's post is that an office felt a poor review wasn't deserved, so they decided to respond publicly.  Doing so is a violation of applicable HIPAA laws and an investigation was undertaken by the HHS Office of Civil Rights.

The result?  The office was fined $50,000.  I won't get into all of the details, because the point of this post to those in healthcare is this: Do not respond in this manner.  The best way to deal with a negative review is by having lots of positive reviews.  Even the best office cannot have 100% satisfaction.  An occasional negative review is going to happen.  Learn from the experience, perhaps reach out to the patient directly via a phone call.

If you want all the details of this story, you can read about it here at the OCR website.