The CDA Presents..

With my focus largely on the dental industry, I had informed my clients that I was heading to the CDA Presents in Anaheim to see what was up and coming in technology. As several of them were not attending, I received requests to look into a few things. One of those requests was for intraoral cameras.

Visiting the numerous vendors provided quite a bit of insight on the products currently on the market as well as the products coming in the next few months. Knowing what kind of questions to ask from a technical stance proved enlightening and also gave a few of the presenters pause. Perhaps they're not accustomed to justifying their product technically. In any case, an intraoral camera that impressed me was the coming Polaris USB by Air Techniques. The specifications are very much in line with all other intraoral cameras. What sets it apart is the swivel head for capturing images from bottom to top without the need to rotate the camera in your hand. Additionally, the inexpensive USB connectivity cord that can be left in each operatory transporting only the handheld just makes sense.

As I mentioned, this product is coming to market so only time will tell if it proves to live up to the whitepapers and demonstrations. Integration with the major imaging software vendors will be key. One can only hope the introduction is quick and smooth.

It's 3pm, do you know where your Technical Support is?

He's busy managing a bar that he owns on the side. No really, that's the answer a new client of mine was given when asking for help from their previous IT Support person. Note the term "previous". Sadly, once again I find the offices of a very successful Practice in very poor condition. Computers down in operatories for upwards of six weeks, frequent issues with printing, corrupt backups going back to 2007, and a Personal-Use ONLY antivirus product installed on 20+ systems. I can see this is going to be a very busy year for me.

It's truly unfortunate that situations like this give the Technical Support/IT industry a black eye. And the horror stories continue because it is so difficult to distinguish the good from the not so good until the damage is done. So I'm working on getting the word out on my services and availability. Meanwhile, I have a few offices to resuscitate.

I wonder which bar he was managing. Perhaps I should go buy him a beer.