1. Invest in Your Future  

Welcome to the second edition of The Digital Dentist Newsletter. Thanks to all who took the time to read the first issue. We had over 6,000 recipients and I got some excellent feedback and ideas for future issues. Thanks also to everyone who has asked about Baby Jake. He’s doing pretty well for a baby born at 33 weeks. He has the expected problems but he’s coming along well. We are hopeful that he’ll be coming home in a few weeks.  

The “sermon” for this week (don’t worry, I’ll keep it short!) is my strong feeling that any money you spend on technology should be viewed as an investment. You are investing in your ability to provide better care to your patients, to attract more new patients to the practice, to provide care that is less invasive to your patients, and to make the practice more appealing to future associates or buyers. I certainly know how expensive it can be to outfit a dental office. I spent over $250,000 on my own practice, and that was back in 1992. Many of the offices we work with are spending well over $50,000 just on the technology systems.  

The point I’m trying to make, though, is try not to cut corners just to save a few dollars now; it’s just not worth it. Sure, you think, easy for me to say since it’s not my money, and I can’t argue with you. But, I have dozens and dozens of horror stories of offices that chose to try to save a few bucks, and regretted that decision. That doesn’t mean you need to go crazy either. Two of the systems I’ll be discussing in this newsletter, computer servers and XDR, can be very cost-effective if you choose wisely.  

Ok, I’m off the soapbox now…on to the meat of the newsletter.
 

2. To “Serve” and Protect  

Following up from the introduction, choosing a computer server for the office can be a very difficult decision. I personally love the Dell computers for various reasons. I think they have numerous options and the servers are priced very competitively. They offer same-day, four-hour support contracts on the servers. And, they build a very dependable machine. However, I know how confusing it can be to actually design one yourself. Every subsystem seems to have at least 4-5 choices, and these can be overwhelming.  

Here are the choices we currently recommend for servers as of September 13, 2006:  

Processor: Get a Core Dual Processor, which is like two processors in one. Anything from 3.0 GHz of speed or greater is fine.  

Operating System: Get either Windows 2003 Server or Small Business Server 2003. XP is a non-no for a true server.  

Partitions: have the company partition off 20 GB of the hard drive space for the operating system only. That will be your C: drive. All programs and data should go on the D; drive. Why? Because, if you ever need to reinstall Windows, you’ll just need to wipe out the operating system on C:; you won’t have to reinstall any of your programs.  

Memory, or RAM: Get at least 1 GB. Larger offices should get 2 GB.  

Hard Drives: Get at least two hard drives that mirror each other, called RAID. They should be at least 250 GB. We normally order a “RAID 1 system with 250 GB drives”.  

Those are the key features to look for…everything else will be gravy. If you order a good quality server, expect to pay about $3500 or so before tax.
 

3. XDR: A Hidden Gem  

While I do feel that you need to invest wisely in technology, there are plenty of great products out there that really give you a good “bang-for-the-buck”. One of my absolutely favorite products is XDR. XDR was developed by Dr. Doug Yoon, the original programmer of the Logicon Caries Detector still being used by Kodak sensors, and Doug partnered up with Dr. Adam Chen, a well-respected dentist here in the LA area. XDR is an image management program, similar to Apteryx, Tigerview, Vipersoft, and many others. Why do I love this system? Let me count the ways….:
 

1. The software is incredibly easy to learn. When we train offices on image software, it normally takes 3-4 hours. It’s very rare that an XDR training session takes more than 90 minutes.
2. The software is very open-ended. While they have optimized the software to work with e2v sensors (the same sensors used by Dentrix, Air Techniques, and many others), they have also opened it up to work with many other systems, such as Suni sensors, Eva sensors, Planmeca Digital Pans, any analog intraoral camera, digital cameras, scanners…the list goes on and on.
3. The software is very inexpensive (too inexpensive if you ask me). We’ve seen some image programs that run as high as $7000…XDR is usually less than 1/3 of that cost.
4. The image program will bridge to every major practice management software on the market.
5. Finally, they provide excellent support of their product. How many companies do you know that if you call with a problem, you get to actually speak to the developer of the software?  

They offer a free trial that you can order from many sources, including my office. If you are considering digital imaging, please give them a look…you won’t be disappointed.
 

Well, that’s it for issue #2. As always, your comments and feedback are appreciated and will be taken to heart.