Editor's Note Carol Murphy, Executive Editor

My first color printer (purchased in 1987) cost about $1200 and was a monster by today’s sleek desktop standards. It literally took two men to move it, could not fit on a desktop at all and required its own study table to withstand the vigorous movement created by the ink heads moving slowly across the paper. Personally, I was never really satisfied with the color quality but everyone was simply in awe that I could print color images from my home printer.

A few years later, Hewlett Packard introduced a much smaller printer with better print quality at almost half the price. It did not take me very long to replace my printing dinosaur. Because of the significant price drop and the mediocre print quality, I didn’t even try to sell the printer. I cut my losses, gave it to a friend and was thankful to have it out of my office.

A few weeks later my friend came over to thank me profusely and held up one of the most extraordinary prints I had ever seen...including the quality I was receiving from my new printer. Seems my friend, always a stickler for details, had purchased some top-notch photo paper, as recommended by the manufacturer. From that day on I have never underestimated the power of ‘photo paper’ to enhance the quality of any image–color or black and white.

This month, Dr. Marty Lipsey, explains how his office has solved the duplicate x-ray dilemma by scanning and printing x-rays for insurance filing. He too, emphasizes that print quality is truly dependent upon the type of paper you use.

If you have ever wondered what PAC~live really is all about, our corporate profile this month will really give you some background on this educational powerhouse. PAC~live, founded in 1999 by Dr. William Dorfman, co-founder of Discus Dental, has gained recognition and national acclaim as one of the most outstanding hands-on teaching facilities in the world. Did you know all the faculty of PAC~live are full-time practicing dentists with busy, successful practices? They don’t just teach...they do it!

Do you use reduced-fee coupons to generate new patients? We’ve included an excerpt from the DentalTown.com message boards to give you an idea of what other dentists offer and what seems to work. Townie, Rod Kurthy, doesn’t believe you should use ‘free’ coupons to get new patients. He, along with professional marketing consultant, William (Howie) Horrocks, share their thoughts on establishing your practice in the right location and problem solving to generate new patients.

After you finish reading articles in this issue, why don’t you kick the kids off the computer and join us online at www.dentaltown.com for some very interesting discussions. I guarantee you won’t regret your visit. The community is now 17,000+ and growing daily.