Research – Page 2

Lumadent headlight review

May 30, 2013 By Trish Walraven 14 Comments

Do you know how sometimes, when you get a new piece of equipment, it’s so Shifta La Paradigma that you can’t even THINK about working without it? You get a little anxious about the possibility of it failing and having to go back to the old way of doing things. What do you do?

You get yourself a backup, right? hoping that your original will keep going until FedEx arrives with your precious cardboard salvation. But then you realize that the backup is so Next Generation, your OLD one ends up becoming the backup. And that’s where I am with my Lumadent headlight. I have the old, the new, and opinions about them both, which are the real reasons you’re here. So let’s get to those, shall we?

Opinion #1: It’s Bright, Baby.

Not only is the Lumadent headlight well-focused and a good color, its shadowless light means that more photons are hitting your retinas, therefore the mouth that you’re looking at may be ACTUALLY MORE GROUNDED in reality. If you can’t see something, it’s not there.

Since I haven’t used any other lights except the Lumadent consider this a broad endorsement for headlights over any other sort of overhead illumination. Just about all of them have some sort of knob that will allow you to adjust the intensity, and I find that I rarely turn the Lumadent’s control any more or less than to the halfway position. I’ve learned how to control my head so that the light doesn’t shine in my patient’s eyes (unless I’m gesticulating wildly, then they might see a few blinding streaks) and the super bright just isn’t necessary most of the time. Also included is a flip-up composite filter to keep your accidental light curing to a minimum. I’ve heard some concerns about LEDs damaging user’s eyes over time which is one reason I tend to keep the power down, but don’t seem to have any problems with eyestrain in the two years I’ve been using one. The new model seems to be just as bright and as clear as the older one, so no change in this most important feature.

Opinion #2: Cords are better. And worse.

But mostly better. I’ll explain. The cord replacement is much easier now that the light detaches completely from it. They’ve also switched to a longer initial cord which means that I don’t have to keep a too-long extension hanging around or knotted up in a tie wrap. You’ll notice that the plug-in at the battery has changed to a right-angle which should keep the tension off the cord. I was KILLING my extensions contacts and the light would flicker and just short out and be a huge pain.

What I’m less than thrilled with is the way that the right-angle attaches to the light itself. If you end up with a short in the new cord now, all you do is detach it right there, loupside, leave the light on the loupe, and plug in a new cord. But the cord sticks up at a weird angle and I’m forced to use yet another tiny tie-wrap to keep those wires from getting tangled in my hair and attached close to the frames. The other thing I do like is that the lens is easier to access and clean now that it’s not recessed. It’s the one on the left in this image.

Opinion #3: This battery pack is serious.

My original battery pack served me well and would stay charged for a whole day, but its slick case in a sassy leather pouch clip probably caused the short outs due to occasional detachment problems. Not the clip, just the battery itself would skittle across the floor when I had a “way to go, Grace” moment.

Now that I have two batteries I forget to charge the new silver one, but I have yet to have it clunk out on me and switching back to the black one for backup. Once you go silver….

So this pack is so serious, it’s like Chuck Norris, it has it’s OWN clip built in. A very tough clip. One so tough that if you wear those cute scrubs with the flared legs and the knit waistline you can forget trying to spread the clip enough to get it to attach to your pants. But I adapted by figuring out how to wear it on a waist-level pocket. Now my biggest issue is leaning close to patients and inadvertently turning the light off at the black side switch. I really think it was better on the top when it was red and adjacent to the intensity knob.

Opinion #4: There’s no excuse for not using a headlight.

I’m just going to think I’m better than you if you don’t have one. That’s my throwdown. If you use the excuse that headlights cost too much? Compare the Lumadent with its “better” competitors, it’s so much less expensive, you can buy one for you AND your assistant. And for your higher power loupes, for that matter. What about the problem with wires and bulk? The Lumadent is so lightweight that once you adjust your behavior a little (all I did was to begin wearing a strap on my loupes instead of taking them on and off so that they hang around my neck when I’m not using them) they will become a much easier part of you than having to reach up and adjust a mounted light somewhere over your right shoulder, in space. And patients stop anticipating the bright light and never squint anymore when it’s time to open their mouths. PATIENT ACCEPTANCE IS AMAZING, and in my opinion, the BEST reason why you should get a Lumadent.

This is my parting shot for you, a side view of the Lumadent attached to a pair of Through-The-Lens shielded SandyGrendel loupes with the custom mount that came with the light. See how it sticks up a little too high, and there are two tie-wraps, and a cord management doohickey making this all such a mess?

No? I don’t see it either, actually.

For earlier insights about Lumadent and the company, click here to go to the DentalBuzz original review.

Future “drug” for dental phobics

April 12, 2013 By Trish Walraven 2 Comments

It looks like virtual reality may actually be almost Matrix-quality in a few short years, and our patients will be able to immerse themselves fully in another world while they’re getting their dental work done. But because there’s a lot more money to be made in gaming (and there’s a MUCH wider customer base) don’t expect that this technology will have a dental application any time soon. Here’s a decent introduction to the concept featuring Palmer Luckey, the originator of the Oculus Rift headset:

These sorts of glasses have been intriguing to me for years, but all the previous versions mentioned here on DentalBuzz basically make it seem like you’re watching a TV screen from a distance. Oculus Rift is different. Users have described the feeling as being totally disconnected from reality. And isn’t that what recreational drugs do? Isn’t that what dental sedatives do?

Imagine a dental appointment where a fearful patient is allowed to slip into a virtual playground where they don’t even need to move their head much in order to initiate the immersive feeling of being elsewhere while they hold their totally oblivious mouths open. Patients’ ears will hear the sounds of their “other world,” letting them slip away from their bodies for a little while so that you can manage all the dental unpleasantries for them.

Here’s another preview of Oculus Rift:

There are many software developers in dentistry that are in search of the next big thing. The 3-D milling technology is pretty awesome these days, but indirect dental software such as patient education, practice management and the like are also looking for the leg-up. Oculus Rift is looking for developers right now, and my guess is that they haven’t even imagined its application in dentistry.

But that’s because you haven’t yet picked up their development kit to make it happen.

Here ya go, and good luck:

Why your fingers shouldn’t be in the picture

March 15, 2013 By Trish Walraven 8 Comments

“Just this once; it’s okay.”

Does that sound like your practice? You know, you have a gaggy, bouncy kid who’s just about to tongue-thrust their way out of having those radiographs taken, but here comes Amazing Assistant to help you get a diagnostically acceptable image. SCORE!

The problem is that this never happens “just once.” I’ve seen the same person holding sensors in patients’ mouths dozens of times, and that’s when it becomes a problem. Yes, radiation is safer now that we’ve dialed it down and collimators make sure that there’s nothing scattering beyond the focused beam, but that doesn’t mean that we should be flippant about limiting exposure to our patients and most importantly, ourselves.

My best friend from high school could tell you not to hold those films in people’s mouths, too. She was a dental technician in the Navy and also worked for years in pediatric dental offices and orthodontics as an assistant, calming nervous children, helping them to have good dental experiences, and when she was exposing radiographs, sometimes she admits that she would make it easier on everyone if she would stay with the child while the x-rays were beaming through her hand.

She doesn’t have to tell you not to hold the films, though. She can just show you why you shouldn’t:

This is her right hand. Several years ago when she was doing laundry her finger caught on the dryer and “snapped.” This is important, sort of like when your patient tells you exactly what they were eating when their tooth broke – don’t you pay that the most attention of all? Because it was the darn dryer that was the problem….(!) Let’s be serious, though. Like you, her doctor really didn’t care what broke her finger, he wanted to know why it broke.

Turns out that she had developed a giant cell tumor in the first (proximal) phalange of her ring finger that had eaten everything except a small sliver of bone and that was what had snapped. These are very, very rare in small bones like those found in our fingers; most osteoclastomas happen in the larger bones like femurs and such. Hmmm.

Even though the tumor was benign, because of the damage done, the possibility of regrowth and other factors, the decision was made for my friend to have her ring finger amputated. I would have had her flip you the bird for effect but she no longer has a middle finger either…! (think about it…!)

So she was fortunate enough to stay in dentistry as a patient care coordinator for a few more years as she recovered but is now working towards her master’s degree for speech pathology. While she doesn’t seem totally convinced that excessive radiation exposure caused her to lose her finger, she doesn’t count it out for even a second.

And neither do I.

Losing a finger may be anecdotal evidence about the dangers of radiation, but it’s enough for me to feel like enforcing what we already know to be true.

Please share this story with those you care about, even if it makes you feel like the Radiation Nazi.

Open, sesame!

March 5, 2012 By Trish Walraven 3 Comments

I wish they would have named it “Strangle Me Elmo.” Because that’s how I feel about that particular character.

Sesame Street was my babysitter growing up, especially since the show and I are practically the same age. So when the news comes that Sesame Workshop is launching an educational oral health initiative geared towards two year olds and up, I get it. They’re about modeling good habits with jingles and images that kids will remember when it’s their time to “do what they saw on TV.”

This is especially helpful for the kids from low-income families, because parents may not realize that their own belief systems about primary teeth can prevent children from getting appropriate care. When a kid sees Elmo brushing his teeth and eating healthy “crunch” foods, studies show that they’re very likely to have positive changes in their own nutrition and hygiene habits, and so even if they’re not going to the dentist, they just might have healthier teeth.

Elmo’s annoying voice was not part of my childhood, so I don’t “connect” with him. But I would, oh, I SO would connect with him, if someone wanted to put him in my hygiene chair and let me spin a prophy cup at his fur.

Learn more about Sesame Workshop and their “Healthy Mouth, Healthy Me” series here, and you also may enjoy reading this interview with Dr. James Crall, Sesame Workshop advisor and professor of pediatric dentistry and public health & community dentistry at UCLA.

Suction supermod

April 4, 2011 By Trish Walraven 4 Comments

by Trish Walraven

Rubber dams, meet silicone simplicity! Awkward assistants, take your cheek retraction and spit-sucking attempts elsewhere. You have both been banned from the operatories where isolation mouthpieces rule supreme.

First brought to market in 2005, Isolite™ Systems originated the idea of combining dryfield illumination and isolation in a patented product called the Isolite, which costs about $1700 per operatory to set up. Whoa, steeeeep. The tubing and LED Smart Stick sure isn’t their loss leader, now, is it? Then you still have to buy a $2.50 mouthpiece for each patient because they’re not sterilizable. All of it together is still easier and less expensive than your assistant.

But what if you want to keep your assistant, even though she kicks you under the chair all those times you say something stupid to a patient or start getting all OCD over a procedure? You’ve already ditched your overhead lamp for loupe-mounted headlights, so maybe you don’t even need the Lite part of the Isolite.

About a year ago, Isolite™ Systems indroduced a non-illuminating version called the IsoDry that runs a little less than half the cost of the original product. Both systems come with extra tubing. Tooobing. Makes me want to laze down the Guadalupe River with a six-pack in a styrofoam cooler. Don’t we have enough tubes and hoses to twist around each other already?

This brings us to the essence, the soul, the very magic of what makes the Isolite System the game-changer that it has become. It’s all about the mouthpiece. This transparent, comfortable, easy-to-insert soft piece of silicone not only attaches to high-speed suction to create a dry field, it replaces bite blocks, throat packs, cotton rolls, drying angles, and everything else that you used to cram in your patient’s mouth to create a perfect restorative environment.

But in order to use the mouthpiece, the rule is, you have to buy an Isolite or an Isodry. You can’t just stick it onto your high-speed suction and use it solo.

Or can you?

Mark Frias, RDH, can hook you up to go commando. Literally. He’s invented a hook-up mod for the Isolite mouthpieces that must have been driven by the frustration of trying to keep a squirmy six year old’s teeth dry for sealants with traditional isolation. You can see the differences between his design and the original Isolite on the left. It’s not sleek and sexy, but from a cost perspective this little adapter is a no-brainer. Mark calls it the Kona Adapter. Why? Is he an Ironman Triathlete from Hawaii? Actually, I think he named it after his dog.

Whatever the case, the ingenuity here is striking at a great moment. Mark is having difficulty keeping Kona Adapters in stock if that’s any indication of its demand.

For those who are concerned about taking business away from Isolite, Mark suggests purchasing a single system for one of your operatories and fitting the rest with Kona Adapters. This will give you the privilege of being an official Isolite customer so that you can be assured that you aren’t buying mouthpieces on the down low.

And everyone really wins here. Isolite could give the system away like Gillette gave away razor handles to sell you the blades for the rest of your life, or use the printer model: sell the hardware cheaply to lock you into high-priced ink refills. It’s not like Isolite Systems is exactly losing money on the mouthpieces. With this new adapter, Isolite can now make money from the dental practices that may have not been able to justify a whole-office use of their product.

So slippery-gripped assistants everywhere: Ding! You are now free to move about the office. Your hands have finally been relieved without a significant lightening of your employers’ bank accounts.

Opinion #1: It’s Bright, Baby.

Opinion #2: Cords are better. And worse.

Opinion #3: This battery pack is serious.

Opinion #4: There’s no excuse for not using a headlight.

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