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Jamming on the Sonicare AirFloss

May 5, 2011 By Trish Walraven 6 Comments

by Trish Walraven

I’m taking flossing to the airwaves. Mah NUMPH bErrr BEHRRRRR… Don’t my riffs sound great?

No?

But it’s air guitar, man, use your imagination! Feel the energy, the passion, the creative flow that turns all of us into rock stars on our gaming consoles!

Something you may not have realized is that you are already a star, at least in the eyes of your patients. A Dental Star. Rock on. Your opinions are gold. Patients ask which toothpaste is best? Which mouthwash should they be using?

One question they never ask is “What should I use to clean between my teeth?” Do patients even register a thought about their interproximal surfaces? Here’s a question for you as a person, not as a dental professional: how often do you think about the skin between your toes? (toejam. eww.)

My point exactly.

But we think about the skin between teeth all the time. That’s where we see the most gingivitis, the highest plaque scores, the most room for improvement. And we’re tired of laying guilt trips on our patients when we realize that they’re not flossing.

That’s when you want to be able to point to alternatives and say to your non-flossers, “Maybe this will work for you.”

Water Piks are wet, messy, and have been around since the 1960’s. Still, they are my go-to recommendation for non-mechanical biofilm reduction because I see improvements in bleeding scores with patients who use them daily. They are also ubiquitous and affordable, making them more attractive than some of the higher priced or obscure dental water jets.

What’s that? Philips has a new gadget that competes with Water Pik? Well, Philips products can be bought everywhere, too! Can you say, “market penetration?” Can you say, “a funhouse explosion in your mouth?”

It’s called the Sonicare AirFloss, and it was introduced to the world a few weeks ago at the International Dental Show in Germany. Philips is being cheeky about it at the moment, but it looks to be making its American debut at the California Dental Association Meeting in Anaheim next week.

The Sonicare AirFloss is said to replace flossing with micro-bursts of water and air. Fill its reservoir with a few teaspoons of mouthwash or water and you’re ready to blast the little legs off your biofilm bugs.

As of this writing, the only way to learn more about the AirFloss is to sign your office up for a Lunch and Learn at the Sonicare website. Who would turn down free food and a nugget of sponsored CE credit to expand their knowledge base about a product that patients will soon be coming to us for answers about its worthiness?

I am always intrigued by the buzz about new preventive products. As an idea that Philips recently acquired with the purchase of Discus Dental, the Air Floss is being presented in a warm fuzzy cushion of patient acceptance. Do patients like this more than flossing? Do they like it more than using a Water Pik? This presentation makes me think that the science behind the product hasn’t shown the health results that Philips had hoped it would. Watch this video from the IDS in Cologne and see what you think. This is Maria Perno Goldie, RDH Village eFocus editor:




And then there’s me. My family will be so thankful when we get an AirFloss because it might just keep me from pretending to be on American Idol when I think I’m alone in the bathroom:



Concert yell, WooOOOOOOOO!

Living the dream, baby.


Thanks, Star Dental, for the shirt. You rock, too.



5/13/11 Update: The AirFloss is now live on the Sonicare Website!

Filed Under: Preventive Care, Products Tagged With: advertising, AirFloss, linkedin, new products, Philips, preventive care, Sonicare, Water Pik

Light with no shadow, like today’s groundhog

February 2, 2011 By Trish Walraven 10 Comments

by Trish Walraven

Did you really want to see that last pair of centrals in crisp detail? I mean, down to every last craze line and coffee stain?

If not, you’re probably one of those people that like shadows, you’ll want to go back down in your burrow and sleep through the next few months. Nothing uncomfortable or awkward for you, thank you. Please leave now – bye! – because the information below will only lead to spending money on things that you don’t care about.

Are they gone yet? Good. Now we can talk about this shadow business. Do you remember when you first started using loupes, how they made you sit up taller, take notice of things you never saw before, and how it is now that you cannot imagine working without them?

About a month ago I hooked a tiny little light onto my loupes in hopes that it would keep my back straighter. I didn’t really expect any more than that. At first it was nice, the light was whiter and just about the same intensity as the incandescent overhead light. Hmm. Then I realized that I had the power turned all the way down on the battery pack. What happened when I began dialing the light up was nothing short of a knee-trembling-Thank-You-Jesus epiphany moment. THE SHADOWS WERE GONE! I didn’t know that there were shadows in people’s mouths before. I didn’t realize that the shadows were extremely annoying in people’s mouths. I didn’t know that you could visualize the distal of tooth numbers 1 and 16 in full spectrum light and see down into that 4 mm pocket that never gets cleaned and scoop out that little yellow goo like a miner panning ankle-deep in a river of gold.

When you have a light attached to your glasses, it always spotlights your focus point exactly. It goes where you go (ouch! just don’t look your patient in the eye through your loupes). It helps you save time because you’re not always reaching up and adjusting the handle of the overhead light. And patients like it when they don’t feel like they’re in an interrogation session. It’s so free and breezy above the chair without all that equipment hanging over their heads.

Now that I’m using a headlamp it really is like a whole new world opened up to my eyes. It’s like the first time I started using loupes all over again. It’s like. Well it’s like something I should have done forever ago. The only two things that were holding me back until now were comfort and cost. I didn’t want to pay over $600 for what is essentially a flashlight. And I didn’t want it to be inconvenient to wear.

After evaluating just about everything offered at the dental meeting booths, one choice has ultimately claimed its place as my new pet: the LumaDent. Don Ton, DDS is the CEO of LumaDent, Inc. and he packs a great story about how his company got started from a DIY project, so I couldn’t resist supporting his business. Okay, I could have resisted if his product was no good, but in my opinion it is the best dental headlight available, for many reasons:

The Price. It is extremely reasonable for a niche market like dentistry. If you find it’s hard to swallow, geez, build it yourself. You’ll still need a battery pack, which you can purchase a la carte from LumaDent.

The Package. Totally turnkey. You get a rechargeable battery pack, a charger, a hip holster, a mount made especially for your type of existing frame, an orange filter, and all sorts of things to help you control your wires. If you have problems along the way, Dr. Don will make it right until you are happy.

The Promise. You hope that it will be comfortable. At 5 grams and a lens no larger than the size of a dime, the LumaDent weighs almost nothing. The headlight is only noticeable because of the wires. If you’re patient and work with the wires to learn how to wear them, they will be no more difficult to put on and take off than a tie. And as I stated before, the quality of the light is exceptional.

If you’re getting the idea that I was somehow coerced into this endorsement with money or discounted product that’s not the case here. I simply love my loupe light, I love juxtapositioning Punxsutawney Phil with shadowless dentistry and I hope to inspire you to see the way you practice in a whole new….

 

…way. Ha. You thought I was going to say light.

 

Filed Under: Operative Dentistry, Products, Technology Tagged With: dental headlight review, dental loupes, Fun, groundhog day, headlamp review, headlight, humor, linkedin, LumaDent, lumadent review, new products, technology

About

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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