Smiles abound at Chicago Midwinter Meeting

Chicago certainly lived up to its reputation as the Windy City last week as more than 30,000 dental professionals attended the Chicago Dental Society's (CDS) 147th annual Midwinter Meeting in the midst of a chilly winter storm.

But it was warm and cozy at McCormick Place as we walked the exhibit hall floor and attended dozens of meetings and continuing education courses. In fact, the general consensus was that this meeting was one of the best in recent years -- an indication that the economic recovery has finally reached the dental industry as well.

Here's a look at some of the highlights:

3M ESPE: We met with Keith Haig, director of marketing for 3M ESPE dental products, who walked us through the company's new e-commerce service. According to Haig, 3M ESPE has been upgrading its website over the last few years to enable visitors to the site to purchase products online through its distribution network.

Research has shown that 70% of dentists buy products online, he noted, and 600,000 customers visit the 3M ESPE site each year -- the majority to do research and buy products, according to Haig.

"But we sell through distributors, so we had to figure out how to respect those relationships," he said. "We had to create a process that didn't exist."

Among the challenges was ensuring that dentists going to the site to purchase products are, in fact, who they say they are, Haig noted. The company solved this problem by incorporating the National Provider Identifier (NPI) number into the registration process. And once customers have registered on the site, the system will remember them each time they return.

When an order is placed, the customer gets an email with a reference number for tracking purposes. At the same time, the order automatically goes to the distributor of the customer's choice. Other features include a subscription-based autoshipping function and customer ratings and reviews.

"Our goal was to make it as easy to use as buying from a retail site," Haig said.

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Philips Oral Healthcare: Practice management consultant Gary Takacs is partnering with Philips in 2013 on an educational initiative designed to help dentists thrive in any economy. Throughout the year, he will be attending dental meetings with Philips to meet with dentists and talk about how to build a successful practice.

"I am passionate about helping dentists succeed," he told DrBicuspid.com. "While there are some challenges, this is a great time for dentistry."

In his Arizona practice, he emphasizes five core principles that have helped them prosper in recent years:

• Implement a comprehensive marketing plan. "Fifty percent of Americans still don't see a dentist," Takacs noted.

• Embrace whitening. "This is a gateway service that can make patients more interested in their teeth and their oral and overall health."

• Use digital photography for patient education. "A picture is worth a thousand words."

• Get serious about diagnosing and treating periodontal disease. "We use this as a platform in our practice -- everyone might not be interested in their teeth, but they are interested in their heart and their overall health." Emphasizing the link between oral health and systemic health makes patients more likely to return every six months for a hygiene appointment, Takacs added.

• Create a great new-patient experience. A relationship-driven practice creates loyalty. Takacs recommends asking your team each morning, "Whose life are we going to change today?"

Henry Schein Dentrix: The company demonstrated the new Dentrix Ascend cloud-based practice management system, which is impressive in its simplicity and user friendliness. It is designed to enable dentists to safely store practice data in the cloud, manage multisite practices, and access information about their practice anytime, anywhere, according to the company.

It is not an extension of the existing Dentrix practice management software but an entirely new product, noted Jay Wood, product marketing manager.

"There have been big improvements in Web technology, tablets, and smartphones, and we wanted to use this as an opportunity to go back to the drawing board and do something unique," he said.

Dentrix Ascend features a natural user interface that echoes other user-friendly software products and services, plus something the company calls "GPS": goals, problems, and solutions. It is designed to deliver real-time information and suggested tasks specific to each user's role in the practice, prioritize these tasks based on the dentist's efficiency and operational goals, and guide each user through a process for successfully accomplishing these tasks.

"We wanted the interface to feel familiar," said Adam McDaniel, product manager for Dentrix Ascend. "It is very much designed to be like a consumer app. We believe software should be more social and the interactions more personal."

Dentrix Ascend is currently in open beta testing through the company's early adopter program, Wood added. It can be used on a PC or a Mac through the Google Chrome browser and is also optimized for Safari on the Apple iPad. Subscriptions will cost $500 a month per site, although during the beta/early adopter phase the cost is $250 a month.

Wm Wrigley Jr. Company: Wrigley is launching a new marketing campaign designed to help educate dental professionals and their patients on the oral health advantages of sugar-free gum. "Eat Drink Chew" emphasizes that chewing Orbit sugar-free gum for 20 minutes after meals can help protect teeth and complement -- not replace -- routine dental care.

"We are trying to re-energize conversations with dental professionals to help them talk with their patients about the benefits of sugar-free gum," said Caroline Sherman, manager of marketing communication for Wrigley in the U.S. "There is a lot of science behind the benefits of sugar-free gum."

The company is currently offering gum samples and educational materials to 46,000 dental offices across the U.S. and plans to triple that number over the course of this year, Sherman noted.

Sunstar Americas: Sunstar has taken on the challenge of reinventing floss and improving patient compliance in the process. At the Chicago Midwinter Meeting, Sunstar introduced EasyThread Floss, which features a new packaging concept and an easy-to-use design that integrates the threader into the floss.

"EasyThread has the potential to create better flossing habits and improve overall oral health for many patients with unique flossing challenges," Richard Demke, DDS, senior director of technology and new product development, told DrBicuspid.com. "We have not done a very good job as a profession in training patients how to use these products and teaching them the importance of compliance."

EasyThread Floss is packaged within a traditional floss dispenser that effectively isolates each strand to eliminate tangles and waste, while the lidded plastic case keeps floss clean until it's ready to use, the company noted in a press release. To further reduce waste, a rewind feature was added to ensure that only the proper amount of floss is dispensed. Sample envelopes containing five individual strands also are available for patient in-home trial.

In addition, each strand of EasyThread features durable threader sections on both ends that are the ideal stiffness -- less likely to irritate gums, yet stiff enough to access hard-to-reach areas, according to the company. And by adding threader sections to both ends of the floss, it doubles the useful life of each strand.

"We know people don't like to floss," said Adam Davidson, who handles marketing for Sunstar's floss and flosser products. "But if we make it easier to use, we will get higher compliance."