What's new

Cry out before you dry out

Asked which creature is most likely to have a dry mouth, the answer would very probably be a camel. It was a holiday in Egypt which inspired student hygienist Jane Pratt to design the winning poster for the Wrigley Oral Healthcare in Action Dental Student Award in association with the BDA.

Oral Healthcare in Action (OHA) have now developed Jane's design and produced a waiting room poster featuring a camel.

'I felt it was a different approach to the usual kind of poster seen in a dentist's waiting room,' said Jane.

Xerostomia is a common and often debilitating condition which affects about one in four people. The reduction in the amount of saliva produced can be distressing and uncomfortable for the patient, causing difficulty with speech, eating and swallowing and an increase in dental decay.

The Facts About A Dry Mouth poster was distributed to all practices that are a member of Oral Healthcare in Action. To join OHA call 0800 0564 563.

Reader response number: 051

Best in the North West

Simon Jersey, one of Europe's leading designers of business clothing, has won the North West Excellence Award.

The company entered the healthcare market earlier this year with a range of clothes for staff working in dental practices. An example uniform is shown below.

Felicity Goodey, BBC journalist and presenter said of Simon Jersey: 'The senior assessor noted their emphasis on leadership, continuous improvement and belief in the value of people.'

Reader response number: 052

PR help at hand for dental practices

The launch of specialist PR agency, Blue Emerald PR Ltd, has resulted in a new approach to public relations programmes for dental practices.

Providing cost-effective and ethical PR packages to dental practices, Blue Emerald's expertise enables clients to make the optimum use of the promotion opportunities available to them.

Blue Emerald has a specialist division to assist dental practices.

Senior Account Manager Nicola Belfrage says 'Our aim is to provide a professional and ethical service for dentists at a reasonable price and get results.'

Reader response number: 053

Clean up for Christmas with Colgate

Colgate are offering the Colgate Actibrush at a special price of £9.99 for Christmas.

The Colgate Actibrush merchandising unit is also available free with the purchases of at least three cases (18 units) of the Actibrush. Replacement heads are also available for £5.99 per pack of two.

The brush is powered by AA Energizer batteries, eliminating the need for chargers. For more information call 01483 401 901.

Reader response number: 054

Arthur grows up

Team Management Systems is expanding its Stoke Mandeville offices to cope with the company's growth during the year 2000.

An increase in the demand for TMS's 'Arthur' for Windows dental software has seen the company grow to the point where it now has one of the largest IT support teams within the dental service industry.

The new section of offices will be completed in January 2001. TMS's first priority is to maintain and continue to improve the level of service to all its customers and to keep them abreast of the latest development.

Meanwhile, TMS's latest upgrade for 'Arthur' for Windows includes many new features.

The 7.20 upgrade provides new features for patient records, letters, treatment plans, clinical charting, appointment book, perio charting and reports. For additional details call TMS on 01296 616600.

Reader response number: 055

Trade news

Vistacam can

Two well-known dental names from Germany have combined to introduce a new intra-oral camera, VistaCam. VistaCam is manufactured in Germany by Dürr and distributed in the UK by KaVo.

The slender VistaCam handpiece optic is of robust stainless steel and is solid and comfortable to hold, yet thin enough to be introduced to the back of the mouth. The manufacturer claims the real innovation is that the depth of field of between 5 and 45 millimetres means focusing is virtually automatic from the lips to the back of the mouth.

Reader response number: 056

Moving up

DMDS have moved to a new office suite which houses a complete workshop enabling essential equipment repairs to be carried out on site. This means repairs on their range of intra-oral cameras, plasma-technology curing lights and digital x-ray machines takes the minimum amount of time.

DMDS aim to carry out all repairs within a 24-hour period. DMDS are able to fulfil over 99 per cent of orders placed with a guaranteed next day delivery.

DMDS's three key products are the Apollo Elite plasma-technology curing light, the Telicam Elite intra-oral camera and the Digital X-ray system.

Reader response number: 057

The labour free Labolight

The GC Labolight is a curing light unit designed specifically for laboratory use.

The wavelength of the Labolight may be adjusted to meet the individual specification of light cured composite resins and as the Labolight has an internal transparent turntable the prosthesis will be fully cured underneath as well as all around the sides. The light intensity is the same be it from underneath or from overhead, resulting in a uniformly cured prosthesis.

The unit is user-friendly, featuring a single touch button console. For extra information contact GC (UK) on 01908 218999.

Reader response number: 058

Stat's the way...

The STATIM 2000 autoclave from Scican offers speed and efficiency.

Unwrapped instruments and handpieces can be sterilised and ready to use in six minutes using the STATIM 2000. Wrapped and drying cycles are also available as well as a cycle for rubber and plastics.

STATIM expels virtually all air during autoclaving. Clean distilled water is used with every cycle preventing the build-up of rust and other contaminants.

Scican claims Statim is user-friendly, with easy to follow keypad operation and a helpful display.

After the cycle is completed, depending on the program selected, a small air compressor switches on, drying and cooling the instruments rapidly.

The STATIM system completely sterilises instruments within international standards.

Reader response number: 059

Reaching the zenith with Virtuoso Xenon

The Virtuoso Xenon power arc from Den-Mat is not only fast, efficient and easy-to-use, it also offers a consistent and guaranteed cure to a depth of 12mm.

As a leading manufacturer of restorative products, Denmat resolved to come up with a light they felt was as advanced as the composite manufactured by their company.

Grafton claim that Virtuoso's high intensity light output cures composites faster than most other lights on the market and can be operated hands free.

Reader response number: 060

Better detection with Diagnodent

The accuracy of detecting occlusal caries in fissures and beneath occlusal surfaces (by either visual or radiographic means) is known to be less than ideal. In addition, monitoring caries at these sites by repeated x-ray is problematic and undesirable.

KaVo claims that Diagnodent can detect occlusal caries and one of the benefits of the system is a potential reduction in x-ray dosage.

According to KaVo, it is clinically proven that decayed teeth fluoresce in specific laser light. Diagnodent stimulates and quantifies this fluorescence.

Diagnodent is first calibrated on a known caries-free area providing a base value for comparison of readings. Increasing readings denote more extensive decay.

Diagnodent costs £1,475 including VAT.

Reader response number: 061

Help at hand

The government has announced it will invest £35 million in the updating and refurbishment of NHS dental practices in 2001-2002.

Henry Schein Procare can produce a detailed estimate of exactly what is involved in bringing into your practice not only the latest technology and equipment but also bringing waiting and reception areas up-to-date.

Henry Schein Procare offer a choice of surgery equipment including dental chairs, digital imaging and radiography equipment.

Reader response number: 062

Make a Miele of it with the G7781

Miele Professional's new G7781 dental washer disinfector enables a more efficient use of dental nurses' time by eliminating manual washing, increasing throughput and reducing the handling of contaminated instruments prior to sterilisation.

The G7781 efficiently cleans coagulated blood and tissue from instruments before completing a thorough disinfection cycle at 93 degrees Celsius. This cycle is followed by a thorough rinsing stage, delivering instru-ments ready to sterilise in under one hour.

Reader response number: 063

The solutions partnership

Service Solutions, providers of engineering and service support to dentists in the home counties, now offer their partner company Dentech Solutions to provide customers with sales, marketing and design activities.

Whether it be a single handpiece or a complete green field site surgery, the Solutions Partnership offers a worry free service which uses, wherever possible, their team of in-house engineers.

The product portfolio includes Bambi, Bein Air, Cattani, Dental EZ, Satelec, Tridac, Modwood and Murrays.

Within a 50 mile radius of Milton Keynes the Solutions Partnership can offer guaranteed lowest prices on all equipment, fast response times and answers to technical problems.

Reader response number: 064