Want to know what the top trends for 2011 were? Take a look!

Dr. Jeff Rhode describes how he used CEREC to turnaround crown placement for an out-of-town patient in one day.

For the second time in a month, I referred a friend last week to an oral surgeon for a biopsy of a suspicious area found during a checkup. There was a hard bump near the vibrating line of the soft palate that was about 5-6 mm in diameter. He had noticed it before, but it was not painful or ulcerated.

Over the past decade, there have been a huge number of changes in dentistry that have irreversibly altered the course of the profession. Besides things like technology such as Cone Beam, dental practice marketing has entered into a whole new dimension. The reality is that dentists have been facing a tough economy over the last few years, and many feel that their hand has been forced in making decisions in how to market themselves and their practice. The “old school” mentality is that you build your practice by word of mouth, one referral at a time.

A New York Dentist that is threatening to sue a patient for a negative review on Yelp.

Using the iPad in the Dental Office with DENTRIX completes the paperless office circle.

The New York Times posted an article this week about the changing view of fluoride in our country. For once, the article was very balanced as far as presenting both sides of the issue. Discussed were the dangers to teeth of having too much fluoride in your diet, especially for young kids. Thankfully, they added in the fact that many studies are inconclusive as to the effects on adults and on the rest of the body.

If I had to perform other procedures, such as endodontics, the ELECTROtorque plus remains to be a workhorse in my practice, and will for years to come.

It was announced today that OraPharma, Inc. has been acquired by Water Street Healthcare Partners. They are a private equity firm that focuses on health care. OraPharma's flagship product is Arestin, a locally delivered antibiotic used in periodontal therapy. If you haven't tried this for your patients, its time to do your homework. The thing I have always liked about OraPharma is the amount of research they have done to prove up their claims. We have all seen different attempts at delivering antiobiotics to help reduce periodontal pockets, but this one really sticks (no pun intended). It will be interesting to see what direction Water Street Healthcare takes with the strong foundation they already have.

In the past I have written about the dangers of misinterpreting information from research articles or news sources, with even the Discovery Channels’ own author blowing things out of proportion. A recent example is the article a friend of mine forwarded to me this weekend, this time from Dr. Mercola, a physician turned internet health guru. His opening paragraph says this: “A new study in the Journal of the American Dental Association finds once again that, contrary to what most people have been told, fluoride is actually bad for teeth.” Fortunately there is a link to the article listed in PubMed, which says something completely different: “Results suggest that prevalence of mild dental fluorosis could be reduced by avoiding ingestion of large quantities of fluoride from reconstituted powdered concentrate infant formula and fluoridated dentifrice.” What that article is actually saying is that if you are using too much fluoridated water for your infants