Wow!  We just got back from the CDA meeting.  It was a great meeting!  And of course, fun to take the kids to Disneyland!  We have been traveling to a lot of great meetings from Oregon to Minnesota.  We sure heard a lot of buzz from everyone loving the

In April 2004, the Bush administration set a 10-year goal of creating personal electronic health records for most Americans that could be accessed and added to by physicians and other health practitioners with the patient’s authorization.  It is called-   The National Health Information Infrastructure (NHII).  So by the year 2014 all offices (including dental) will be mandated to have electronic patient records.  I guess its time to learn all the ins and outs of the technology available to us! 

“By computerizing health records, we can avoid dangerous medical mistakes, reduce costs and improve care”.  These words in President George W. Bush’s State of the Union Address from Jan. 20, 2004,¹ were the first step in making computerizing the health care system in the United States a widely recognized national priority. 

And, of course by being paperless offices we will obviously be “green”.   So, no more charts, insurance forms, perio charts, and the Dental R.A.T. even gets rid of that old blue/red pencilJ  I say “hurray to that!”

Wow!  What a weekend in Atlanta for the Hinman Dental Meeting!  We didn’t even have any warning and of course we were staying in the tallest hotel in town”The Westin”.   It sounded like hail hitting the windows and the building started swaying, then the windows started breaking!!  Natalie and Tasha were looking out one of their hotel windows and the other window blew in on them!  Talk about luck!  And we don’t believe in luck, someone was watching out for us.  We had tried to get to the top of the hotel in their revolving restauraunt and the elevator wasn’t stopping on our floor!  Thank God, because it wasn’t 15 minutes later when the tornado hit!  I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the 80th floor! 

We also felt so blessed when we finally got into the convention center on Tuesday and so many booths were ruined!  Ours was fine, absolutely untouched!  But, only 15 feet away was a hole in the wall that was missing!!!   In the picture, thats not a window! 

It was dissappointing that we couldn’t finish the show since we’d never been there and we had so much interest!  In fact, Saturday morning we walked to McD’s and standing in line we sold a Dental R.A.T. to an office that had wanted to come back Saturday to buy:)  That made us smile on such a dreary day!! 

I did get to see a great side of Georgia too.  My friend Penny let me stay with her till I could get back into the convention center.  It was a beautiful weekend (70 degrees) and I felt like I had a mini vacation with a great friend out on her lake:)

I hope that if you were there that you faired well also!  It sure makes you thankful to be alive!! 

So it is the Chinese Year of the Rat, as of Feb 23rd.  I guess each Chinese year is assigned an animal representative.  Legend has it that an emperor once invited birds, reptiles and rodents to appear before him.  The order in which they approached determined their placement in the recurring cycle of years.  The rat came up first, and the pig (2007’s symbol) came last.  Rat years are supposed to bring prosperity and a strong economy, while children born during the year exhibit courage, leadership and curiosity.  We think its a fun legend especially since this year is starting out strong for us and our new Dental R.A.T. is here! 

Our new wireless unit is here and we are finally caught up on our backorders!  Unfortunately it took longer than we expected and we appologize for that.  But, it is better than planned!  We have an adjustable mouse speed and audio for those that want to hear the numbers as they are entered.  The audio comes right out of the computer or if a headset is plugged into the computer speakers.   And right now there are two colors, the lilac or black.  We are planning to make more colored covers to match the offices.  The top cover peels back and can be replaced:)  Its such a fun little unit:) 

We have been busy traveling to all the trade shows this winter- WOW!!  We’ve been to Boston, Chicago, Utah and Idaho and we are heading to Georgia for the Hinman.  It’s been so fun with all the buzz about our new wireless Dental R.A.T. 2.0!  It should be a fun Year of the Rat:) 

When we were at the Greater NY Dental meeting we ran into so many offices that didn’t have any perio charting software and wanted to use the Dental R.A.T., so we decided we wanted to offer stand alone perio charting software for those offices!!  So we now have stand alone perio charting software- OPChart!!  We will be demonstrating it at the Yankee meeting and will soon have a demo on our website.  It has a 30 day trial, and its great!  It has nice easy buttons for marking bleeding and supporation and everything can be completed in a single pass, recession and pockets!  It has great graphics to print for patient education; and, it bridges with any software or is stand alone!  Plus, its not expensive! Only $1195! 

So for those offices that don’t have their own software yet-  we got you covered! 

We just  got back from two incredible dental meetings!!  The first one in Vegas was “The Best Show Ever” and it was!  It was put on by the Madow brothers and it was incredible.  It was like a rock concert with a trade show attached!  The whole staff was there and everyone ran around in matching shirts for their teams and talk about motivated offices!  These are the type of offices that stay so up to date on new products and all work so well together, it was so inspiring!  We met our new Canadian reseller (see picture above) Nimet!  What a great office!  If you were looking for a new exciting meeting, check out TBSE!!   

We came home, had some Turkey and went off to The Greater NY meeting.  What a blast!  We had never been there and everyone was so excited about the Dental R.A.T.!!  It was a great meeting too!  I think there were 53,000 people there!!!! 

We have alot of people waiting on our new wireless Dental R.A.T. 2.0!!  It’s coming!!   It’s so cool too!  It has audio feedback and the mouse speed is adjustable to make everyone happy!  Thanks for being patient, only a few more weeks!!!! 

We were in the New Product Showcase:), and those running it said our case was one of the most popular, so we’re anxious to see who won!  And, Tasha (our marketing manager) wasn’t even in it after the show started:) 

Wow!  What a great meeting we had at the ADA!  We were worried because we were back in a corner up against a wall- but we did great!!  I don’t think we could’ve talked to any more people (especially since I lost my voice:).  Everyone was so excited about the debut of the new cordless Dental R.A.T. 2.0!!  We were preselling a lot of Dental R.A.T. 2.0’s!!  Everyone was impressed with the smaller size and the cordless (or USB) version.   It was a huge hit!!  And especially since so many people were talking about it in the presentations-  it was great!!!  Dr Feuerstein and Dr Emmott and Dr Lavine… THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! 

We got to spend alot of time with our Australian/New Zealand rep and his wife- Mac and Josie Swift!  It was so nice of them to make such a long trip, but well worth it I hope!!  We could listen their accents all day!  I think we’ll need to make a trip down-under to make sure all is going well very soon:)

College is back in session in most areas.  We are excited they are up and running as we are helping several hygiene schools get the new technology of the Dental R.A.T.’s.  The common problem with most colleges was the funding for computers and software in the clinics, so we have been helping them get the whole technology package if they need it (at no cost to them).  We just think its so important for the students to be up to date on all the new technology so its not such a huge learning curve when they graduate.  Its so fun to get to work with the colleges and train the faculty and students!  At first I’ll admit I felt like a student going back to visit my college, but its getting easier:) 

If you know of a college that you think would be interested in new computerized technology and Dental R.A.T.’s just  email us at info@dentalrat.com.   We also have been letting the students give back to their colleges when they graduate.  We give them a special price and then donate $100 back to their college when their office buys a Dental R.A.T.!

We are heading to SanFransisco next week for the ADA,  so if you are there come by and visit us at booth #6748!  We will be showcasing our new model!!!  

I’m still recouping from Washington DC, Wow!  What a beautiful place and it was so fun getting to meet so many hygienists that were so excited about new products!  I wish we would have had more time in the exhibit hall, but it was an excellent meeting!  We got to go on the dinner cruise and that was so fun!  I was not doing the electric slide:)  Many were though, I was trying not to get sea sick:(   I did get to visit with Patti DiGangi, what an incredible lady, if you ever get a chance to listen to her presentation don’t miss it!!  http://www.pdigangi.com/  She has tons of energy and its contagious!! 

I wanted to say congrats to our i-Pod winner at RDH UOR- Raychene -  Congratulations!! 

Watch for specials in our newsletter this week!  Please sign up for our newsletter to make sure you receive it!  We promise we won’t bug you, just keep you informed.  

Wow!  What a busy summer for us as I’m sure for most of us! 

We just got back from the ADHA meeting in New Orleans and the Pacific Northwest Dental Conference in Seattle.  What excellent meetings!  This was our first time at the Washington meeting and we got a lot of WOW’s!!  I almost lost my voice.  Its so fun to meet so many new faces that are interested in updating their technology in their office.  We had so many excited offices that have been looking for a solution to the two person perio charting issue.  There are alot of dental offices going through the change (not the midlife one) from paper to computers right now and it is a struggle at first, but so nice after its done.  Be patient:) 

Dr. Lorne Lavine has alot of helpful hints for those offices going paperless on his site at www.thedigitaldentist.com.   Also, Dr Larry Emmott at www.emmottontechnology.com has alot of good advice on going paperless.  It may seem difficult in the transition, but looking back you will not understand how you could have done the paper office. 

I’m looking forward to the RDH UOR meeting in Washington DC next week too!  It’s always a fun one!!  So, I’ll keep it short for now- enjoy your summer!  It’s almost over! 

I know its been a while since I’ve written, I’ll try & be better; but lately I’ve had a few bumps in the road!  Right now I’m sitting on a gorgeous lake in the mountains of Idaho & I’m so thankful to be able to be here!  Even if I don’t feel a jerk at the other end of my fishing pole its a great day!  Its so nice to feel the sunshine & be with family and friends; considering last week I was in the critical care unit at the Mayo Clinic!

I went in for a fairly simple procedure on my heart & ended up with a life threatening complication.  I’d had this procedure done a couple other times & it hadn’t taken care of it so my cardiologist sent me to the Mayo Clinic where I could be treated by the best of the best & the best equipment.  I had VT (ventricular tachycardia) which meant that for no apparent reason my heart would race to sometimes 250 beats per minute & often for hours like that- very exhausting & scary!  The Dr’s can treat it with radiofrequency ablation, where they run a line inside your heart & burn the bad areas causing this issue.  After doing this procedure twice we fet like my issue was on the outside of my heart & there are only a couple Dr’s that do this, that’s why I was at the Mayo Clinic.  What an incredible place, Rochester Minnesota!  Presidents have been treated there, I was in great hands!   To me it felt like the same procedure, injecting medications into my blood stream to stress my heart and that good ol burning sensation, I was wide awake & after 11 hours I was pooped!  As I was falling asleep they woke me up to tell me that my blood test showed I was internally bleeding & they took me back into surgery.  They could tell it was from the liver but couldn’t tell enough to fix it, they figured they hit an artery in my liver which was a risk going to the outside of the heart.  So I had two days of blood transfusions & boy was I thankful for those people that took the time & effort to donate blood!  On the 4th day they were going to take me back into surgery to try & stop the bleeding again as my abdomin had puffed out to about 8mo pregnant!  That morning I had felt so many prayers & God & I had a long chat & so I asked the Dr’s to check my blood level again because I believed I’d clotted on my own & could possibly avoid going back in.  Thankfully I had stopped & was on my way to recovery!  So now- tons of red meat and green leafy vegis to get my blood up!  Try getting red meat on the cardiac critical care unit:)  I’m still weak; but getting back to normal and so thankful to be here!  I was so excited to get back to the Dental R.A.T. and so thankful to have such an awesome staff to keep everything going!  I really appreciated all the cards & thoughts & prayers from so many people- they work!!