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Dell releases new firmware for Latitude and Precision laptops

December 3, 2009 By DentalBuzz Staff Leave a Comment

If your Dell E6500, E6400 or M6400 has been overheating, and seemingly sluggish then we have good news for you. The folks in Round Rock, TX have released a bios update that should fix all your performance problems.

Head over to dell.com and click on Support to download the latest drivers and bios update for your machine.

Here is a little of the back story

Filed Under: Software, Technology

Ready for Windows 7?

October 8, 2009 By DentalBuzz Staff Leave a Comment

Are the computers in your practice ready for Windows 7?  You are most likely still running Windows XP because  your practice management and digital radiography software/hardware was not compatible with Vista.

Now is a good time to look at some computer upgrades and prepare yourself for Windows 7. A good way to start this process is to look at refurbished equipment. While many of the top manufactures offer refurbished equipment none do it better than Dell. To help you get started we are including a few links and couple of newly minted coupon codes, but you better hurry the deals and codes won’t last forever.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Hardware, Money, Practice Management, Technology

The Best of Both Worlds

October 6, 2009 By DentalBuzz Staff Leave a Comment

fusionDental practices that have made the leap to Apple hardware and are running a copy of Windows XP in a virtual machine, things are going to get a little brighter. VMware the maker of Fusion for Mac announced today the availability of version 3.0 with Snow Leopard Support.

Highlights include:

  • Optimized for Snow Leopard. Built from the ground up for the Mac, VMware Fusion 3 leverages Mac OS X Snow Leopard’s advanced architecture with a new 64-bit core engine and native support for the 64-bit kernel, delivering even better Windows on Mac performance.
    Ultimate Windows 7 Experience.  VMware Fusion 3 will be the first to enable the full Windows 7 experience, side-by-side with your Mac, complete with Windows Aero and Flip 3D.
  • Switching Made Easy. VMware Fusion 3 will make it easy for users to bring their entire PC to their Mac in a few easy steps – wirelessly or with a simple Ethernet cable – allowing customers to protect investments in existing Windows software, and to keep using the programs they still need.
  • Best-in-Class 3D Graphics. Support for OpenGL 2.1 and DirectX 9.0c Shader Model 3 will enable users to run their favorite 3D Windows games and applications – all without rebooting.

VMware Fusion 3 is now available for pre-order at at vmware.com/fusion at a suggested price of $79.99, with upgrade pricing of $39.99 available to current VMware Fusion users.

Filed Under: Practice Management, Software, Technology

Freeze Teeth for the Future

December 16, 2008 By Trish Walraven 2 Comments

 

Dear Santa,

This is so hard; I didn’t know who else I could write that could help me in my dilemma. My college finals are over and I recently went to oral surgeon’s office about my wisdom teeth. The plan is to have them taken out right after Christmas. The deal is, they’re not hurting. In fact, they are so buried in the bone that they aren’t even close to my other molars.

 

The weird thing was when I went to the oral surgeon for a consultation, he told me that when he took the wisdom teeth out, he could send all of them to a cryogenics lab where they would extract my stem cells and freeze them in case I needed them in the future to grow new nerve, cartilage, bone, a liver, or even a new heart.

 

 

 

I thought about it a lot, I really did, Santa. Did my research, too and realized that you’ve got some experience dealing with people who want to deep freeze everything they can touch. Here’s what I came up with:

  • The company that my dentist is using is called StemSave. It costs about $700 for StemSave to process and store my wisdom teeth for the first year and $100 per year afterwards. Until I use them or die, whichever comes first. 
  •  BioEden is another company that also cryopreserves teeth for future use, with methods and fees similar to StemSave’s.
  • The technology for the actual preservation seems good, and wisdom teeth may have more useable adult stem cells compared to bone marrow if I get sick and need them later in life.
  • As teeth age, they have fewer stem cells in them.
  • There is a bit of controversy on the subject – I’m worried that stem cell banking may be more beneficial for the cryobanking investors than for the patients. There’s not really enough long-term data to suggest anything but hope on the researcher’s parts.

 

Then I got to thinking in the opposite direction. What if I just left my wisdom teeth in place? Doesn’t my own body work pretty good as an incubator for all those stem cells? Guaranteed to stay a steamy 98.6 degrees (or more), whether or not I make the payments each month? And the future, being so bright and all, maybe there will be a way to harvest my wisdom teeth with lasers instead, and then tease out all those precious tidbits from the insides.

 

 

Now I know you’re not a dentist yourself, Santa. But didn’t I hear that one of your elves become part of the North Pole Cavity Patrol? I’ve enclosed a copy of my X-Ray for Dr. Hermey to look at. All I want for Christmas is my four back teeth, one way or the other. Please help me decide what to do, Santa!

Signed,

Blue Christmas Girl               

Filed Under: Operative Dentistry, Research, Technology Tagged With: 3rd molars, BioEden, Cryopreservation, Stem cells, StemSave, wisdom teeth

How’s your hearing?

October 9, 2008 By Trish Walraven 3 Comments

Nice product presentation on the left, don’t you think?

Now what exactly are they? The latest in clear maxillary molar implants?

Wrong. You stick them in your ears. You. The dental professional.  Yes, you, the person who is losing their hearing and doesn’t mind spending about a grand to protect what’s left of your stereocilia.

Not losing your hearing? Then prove it to yourself. Take the test below in a quiet place. Naturally you need to have speakers turned up to about medium to hear all the frequencies. The higher ranges are what are known as the “mosquito” ringtones, which are outside the audible range of people over 30, and often used by the young-uns to send stealth text messages to each other.

There have been a few inconclusive studies published in the dental journals this decade about the concern that high decibel-level noise is an occupational hazard in dental practices. We thought that now would be a good time to gather a little of our own anecdotal evidence, and see how dentists’ hearing stacks up to the general population.

Play     Frequency          Age Range
 8 kHz Everyone
10 kHz 60 & Younger
12 kHz 50 & Younger
14 kHz 45 & Younger
15 kHz 39 & Younger
16 kHz 30 & Younger
17 kHz 24 & Younger
18 kHz 22 & Younger
19 kHz 20 & Younger
20 kHz 18 & Younger
21 kHz 17 & Younger
22 kHz 16 & Younger

Be sure to use your browser’s “back” button to come back to this page each time until you’ve figured out which frequency is your upper limit.

The University of New South Wales in Australia has posted this test if you’d like a more comprehensive hearing exam. And if it looks like your future may be one of geriatric deafness, you might want to give thought to the benefits of a pair of DentalEars.

Filed Under: Operative Dentistry, Products, Research, Technology Tagged With: Dental Ear, dental hearing loss, Hearing aids, hearing test, mosquito ringtones, survey

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DentalBuzz explores rising trends in dentistry with its own slant. The speed at which new products and ideas enter the dental field can often outpace our ability to understand just exactly the direction in which we are heading. But somehow, by being a little less serious about dentistry and dental care, we might get closer to making sense of it all.

So yeah, a tongue-in-cheek pun would fit really nicely here, but that would be in bad taste. Never mind, it just happened anyways. Stop reading sidebars already and click on some content instead.

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