DentalBuzz - a jolt of current…

Our resident gadget expert,The Computeritized Dentist, just wants his network to run properly and leaves the technical specs to the geeks. We asked him to read an important message that we got from Microsoft today.

The Computeritized Dentist will now translate this June 24, 2008 letter from Microsoft Senior Vice President Bill Veghte detailing the fate of Windows XP, among other things:

“Today, almost every dental office in the world that is computerized uses a PC with our software platform. And unless you want to ditch everything you’re already using, you’re stuck with us - and all the peripherals that try to get along with us.

“Windows XP is a dinosaur, and you may have heard that it is scheduled to be installed in the Museum of Planned Obsolescence on June 30, 2008.  Ha, ha, there’s really no such museum; that was just a clever metaphor that I thought of myself. 

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Looking around your dental practice, you wonder where the ideas for all those gadgets came from. Do you need help uncluttering the deja-vu from your mind?

Run your mouse over the product images to get a sense of their origins.

Unfortunately, the Luxatemp guns do not fire over long distances. That and they’re kind of runny.

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Unbiased reporting about the consumers themselves.

It may be hard to believe, but patients all over the country are complaining that dentists aren’t asking them to pay their bills anymore.

For many years, consumers have taken advantage of dental practices’ good will by just “paying when they could” for their dental care. Unfortunately for many offices, this resulted in the expenses of staff time, mailing repeated statements, and simply writing off debts that were never paid.

Now that healthcare financing has come to the market, Consumer Reports (July 2008 issue) is pointing fingers at CareCredit, the Citi Health Card, Chase HealthAdvance, CapitalOne Healthcare Finance, and the dental providers themselves for allegedly taking advantage of the doctor-patient relationship.

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Throw away all your battery-powered unmentionables and welcome a familiar friend to your bedside drawer!

The Oral-B Pulsar disposable electric toothbrush is the discreet answer to better pleasure, vitality, and all-around good vibes.

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It is about time that periodontists, oral surgeons, and all dental professionals hear a public apology like this.

Today NPR aired a Fresh Air segment featuring writer David Sedaris. The morbidly fascinating sense of personal maladies that he brings to his humor dwells in a special place in our hearts. Or at least in our noses.

Here’s an excerpt of the 25-minute interview:

Terry Gross:

 “You talked about the boil [on your backside], and you wrote how horrible the stuff that came out of it was; that it smelled like evil that had been trapped in your body. I would like you to reflect on that, feeling like you’d been the host to this stuff.”

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