Howard Speaks by Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, MAGD

Diagnosing and treatment planning is without a doubt the most difficult part of dentistry and medicine. Deciding upon the best course of treatment is often more difficult than actually doing the treatment. Periodontists are the best at treatment planning, hands down. Periodontists have more training in treatment planning and get to work with many dentists. Once the treatment has begun, the devil is in the details. So with 9600 Townies in mind, Kodak and DentalTown.com are very proud to announce our latest website enhancement: Case Presentation.

Some of you may already be familiar with websites such as Kodak’s Ofoto and Sony’s Imagestation websites which allow you to upload photos (transfer photos from their current storage location–your computer hard drive or disk) and share online with family and friends by providing a link to your own personalized online photo gallery.

You can add case notes of any length and your case will be available for viewing

So, how will you use this free service? Well, suppose you have a patient that has an oral lesion. Wouldn’t it be nice to obtain opinions on the case from other dentists around the world? Or maybe you have run across a case that is really challenging. You could post a case with a brief summary of your initial findings and then return to your computer to find treatment plan recommendations based on decades of combined experience within the DentalTown community. Or, if you prefer a private consultation with a fellow Townie, specialist or dental lab, you may password protect access to your case. You can do all of these things–easily and without ever leaving the DentalTown website.

You can easily locate a specific case or area of interest by selecting one of ten categories		Registered users can post comments and questions below the case presentation so the conversation and the case stay together. If you love to ask questions about every step, product and detail used in a case, this is your chance

We expect an enormous amount of cases to be posted so we have provided different categories that will enable everyone to find things quickly and focus on their own area of interest. The categories of cases will be: Endodontics, Oral Surgery/Pathology, Orthodontics, Pedodontics, Periodontics, Prosthodontics, Restorative, Marketing, Practice Design, and Other. If you think of any more categories email me at howard@dentaltown.com.

I would personally like to thank Kodak for sponsoring this exciting new feature. I know this Case Presentation module will help many dentists find their next level. Visit www.dentaltown.com, click on Case Presentation and experience the power of the biggest Internet study club in the world. See you online!