December 5, 2013
Digital dentistry: Onward and upward
If you weren’t really “in” to the whole digital dentistry thing, you would have benefited from attending the speeches. They were both insightful and inspirational, even to a simple dental editor like me.
Making the switch to electronic dental records
Stan Bergman, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Henry Schein, Inc., began the speeches by quoting Isaac Asimov, an American science fiction writer: “No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.” He then added a Wayne Gretsky quote: “Go to where the puck is going.”
Without getting into too much detail of what each speaker talked about (I can’t remember the stats or read most of what I wrote down), I’ll just say that Mr. Bergman laid the foundation for what the rest of the speeches would center on: the future. And for dentistry and the healthcare field as a whole, it’s bright.
Dr. Marcus Abboud, Founding Chair of the Department of Prosthodontics and Digital Technology at the Stony Brook University School of Dental Medicine, added that “the most important skill for dentists may be to learn something new,” as most of what college students are learning in school has to apply generally to some skill in the future; many of the top jobs of today didn’t exist 10 years ago.
Perhaps the most fascinating thing uttered on stage within that hour – to me, at least – was that future dental technicians (and “future” probably means “now”) will soon be “techies” – the people interested in computer games, app development, etc., which means that they won’t be dental technicians because they’re really into dentistry – it means they’ll be dental technicians because dentistry is where the most fascinating advancements in healthcare – and maybe in general – are happening.
It’s interesting to think about the changes taking place in our world today, and how the future is coming at us more quickly than ever before. Better start drinking the Kool-Aid.
