Digital Technology: 'Is It a Tipping Point Or a Shift?'

Are digital technologies going to cause a dramatic change (a tipping point) in dental delivery or will these technologies evolve over time to merely create a shift in the way dentistry is performed?

This summer's Dental Trade Alliance meeting in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, gave attendees ample opportunity to explore this question. Based on Malcolm Gladwell's bestselling book, The Tipping Point, the theme of the meeting was: The Tipping Points: Grow Your Business in Explosive Proportions. Gladwell, the meeting's keynote speaker, acknowledged that our industry is fragmented and it could benefit from "a trusted voice" to sort through and make sense of the overwhelming deluge of available technology and dental services. In this way, he set the stage for detailed discussions about the increasing availability of digital technologies and the growing interest in CAD/CAM.

"This is a very confusing time for laboratory owners," speaker Mike Girard told more than...