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Archives for October 2013

Gold refining update

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by Morgan Kerrissey, VP of Business Development at Garfield Refining Company

Way back in 2010 DentalBuzz was in its groove, dishing on Garfield, spotting trends and staying ahead of the curve. Fast forward three years and some of those trends now seem a wee bit dated– look at Lady Gaga and her Twilight inspired grill! — while other trends have only surged in popularity. Since that first blog post the already popular Patient Bling Program** exploded with another 10,000 doctors enrolling. For those of you not already in the know, the program is offered by Garfield Refining Company and is known to them as their Patient Scrap Program (**Fun people still prefer the Dentalbuzz rebranded name!).

Garfield offers prepaid mailers that you can distribute to your patients so they can deal directly with a precious metals refinery. It doesn’t cost anything, Garfield handles all the paperwork, and best of all you earn a 10% rebate. It’s like free money. Plus this year they have added some new features, allowing doctors to customize their payment schedules, be paid in coins or bullion, and receive better email reporting. It’s a win/win: patients love the opportunity to sell their old crowns and doctors love the opportunity to give their patients a small perk.

So once again, if you haven’t already, click here to enroll.

 

DIY dentistry kit for preppers

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dentidrillList

It’s getting closer to 2014 and you can pretty much guess what that means: the Obamacarepocalypse is almost upon us. Yee Haw. Preppers convinced that TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it) is imminent will be pleased that they will no longer need to add a dentist to their list of People We Would Like To Have With Us when it all hits the fan.

What can you add to your hoard instead of another mouth to feed? A home dental kit, of course! The DentiDrill comes complete with a handpiece, a curing light, a wee bit of composite, a vial of topical lidocaine, a lithium-ion battery charger, 1 tungsten steel drill head,  a silicon polisher, a stainless steel dentist mirror, and the DVD tutorial.

dentadrillsmallYou’d better pre-order soon, though. As soon as the FDA and other authorities get wind of this there will be an immediate shutdown of all shipments. You know how good our government is at shutdowns. Product is supposed to begin its journey to the US tomorrow if it all goes as planned, however.

Currently the DentiDrill is being marketed to moms who feel that their options are otherwise limited when it comes to taking care of their children’s teeth. Does a mother have the legal right to practice dentistry on her kids without a license? After the apocalypse comes, who cares about licenses? See, the marketers have got it ALL WRONG! You’re not scaring people away from managed healthcare, you’re inviting chaos and STUPID FEAR! I say bring it, if that’s what you want. This is only clever and useful if you’re desperate, and in the United States, trust me, we are not. At least not yet.

Curious to learn more?  You’ll just have to see this video to believe it.

 

 

Still don’t believe it’s real? Just look! There’s More! DentiDrill has a Facebook page here that details design and production going back a year or so. It certainly doesn’t seem too fishy.

If you’re ready to drop $275 for one or are just trying to figure this thing out, visit DentiDrill.com and get one step closer to feeling like you’re doing the right thing for yourself and your family.

As far as me and how far I’ll go to prep for the end of civilization? I’ll probably just learn how to take out teeth. Much more practical skill, no batteries needed, just a strong stomach and hey, maybe a couple of swigs from that bottle that you were counting on your drinking buddy to bring.

 

 
Interesting Note: The DentiDrill website domain owner shares the same address as the Kentucky Dental Association. Thanks to Dr. Shad Lewis at DentalTown for this wonderful bit of sleuthing.The American Dental Association says that the KDA denies the address connection in this announcement published October 25.

THE FINAL WORD? (updated October 28, 2013) The DentiDrill isn’t real. It’s a hoax. The Dutch dental insurance company responsible for the publicity stunt probably didn’t realize that it would just make their business model seem like a joke as well.

Health IT Security: THE GAME

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There is just nothing, nothing at all that is alluring or interesting about the need to safeguard our patient data. We want to pass the buck, let SOMEONE ELSE HANDLE IT, not our problem. Except that if your dental team doesn’t know better there’s a chance that they’re setting you up for a security breach out of mere ignorance. Trust me, you do not want to go there. Instead, our government spent a whole bunch of money, probably, to make a video game for you and your office to play and learn about CyberSecurity.

 

Click to go to the game at HealthIT.gov

 

Wait, before you pass judgement like I did and say either (1) This can’t be real, it’s a joke or (2) it’s stupid to play a game about medical data security, just click on the image above, type in a random name, and PLAY IT. You’ll be surprised what you do and don’t know about the HIPAA and HiTech laws that affect you and your practice, and that it’s actually a pretty interesting way to learn.

What’s that? Should you allow your team members to play it during work? If they have basic knowledge of proper security protocols they will be much more likely to understand the importance of any changes that may be rolled out with the way you handle patient data in the near future. And you’ll get bonus points for being kind of cool, but not really, because it is still work, even if it’s disguised as fun.

Here’s the link:

http://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/cybersecure/cybersecure.html

It should only take you about 15 minutes to complete the entire game, unless you’re actually looking for all that extra real estate that it promises to give you.

And really, consider the source.

 

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