Broken X-ray Sensors - Why They Break

Broken X-ray Sensors - Why They Break

Digital x-ray sensors, just like any other piece of technology, can become finicky and break with general use.  Things like cable protectors, patient biting, connector wear can all attribute to a xray sensor not functioning correctly.  

For more information about why dental x-ray sensors break, whether or not new sensor cables on Schick x-ray sensors will be more durable and whether or not sensors in general are affordable.

Carestream / Kodak RVG 6100 Sensor

Dexis Dental Sensor Repair - Don't Throw Out That Broken Dexis Sensor!

Here at Sodium Systems LLC we do our best to help customers with Dexis sensor repair. We perform Dexis Classic Sensor repair and Dexis Platinum Sensor Repair in house and we are not affiliated with Dexis or there parent company in any way. If you have a Dexis sensor you would like repaired. Just follow this link to Dexis Sensor Repair.

Dexis sensor repair can be difficult because the old classic sensor uses a special 19 pin round connector that requires a high degree of skill to solder to and can be difficult to find and purchase. We also have gone to great efforts to have our own custom cable manufactured that we believe will be both very good for signal transfer and durability. The key was to also insure the cable would be very thin and flexible. if you see other companies advertising that they do dental sensor repair or Dexis sensor repair, one big question to ask them is if they are performing a full cable replacement or simply cutting out bad sections and leaving you with your old cable. These inline splice repairs will result in a section of failure and a greater amount of noise in the signal because a break and re splice always causes signal degradation in a copper wire.

Also, many of the sites out there advertising Dexis sensor repair are not performing the repairs in house, they are receiving your sensor and then having a non employee do the repair. I would suggest getting it in writing that only employees of the company you are sending your very expensive sensor off to are going to have access to your sensor.

There are other aspects of Dexis sensor repair that are important. What type of facility is the repair being performed in? How many hours of experience does the repair technician have with repairing your sensor. Sodium Systems can show that its Dexis Sensor Repair technicians have over 2000 hours of Dexis Sensor Repair experience. That is a real number and to put it on this blog in print means it is true. Other companies may use phrases like “very experienced”, “lots of experience”, “most experience” which are all ways to avoid actually telling you how much experience they have because if they had to list in real hours they would most have 100 times less experience. There have been several companies with absolutely no experience that just know how the internet works that if they post up a page and make general claims real companies, with real technicians and real experience can not do anything about it because a general claim of “very experienced” is always defend able. They can say they did 1 sensor and feel that is “very experienced”.

So with Dexis sensor repair, Dexis Platinum Repair, and Dexis Classic repair I have some questions for you to ask any company who is offering you repair services (and get it in an email because people will say anything over the phone). This is very very important because if the repair is not performed correctly the technician could actually destroy what could have been a repairable sensor.
1. Will an employee of your company be providing the repair services?

2. How many hours of experience does your technician have repairing Dental Xray Sensors or get specific and ask them how much experience their technician has repairing Dexis Sensors?

3. How many Dexis Sensor Repairs has the employee performed?

4. Does the company do a full cable replacement or are they splicing your cable?

5. Are they using anti static devices, do they have calibrated digitally controlled temperature soldering irons, are they using non corrosive flux, are they using high silver low led solder for best connection, and finally are they using a potting flux and silicone protector to both insure the durability of the sensor and the ability to re repair the sensor years down the road if it is needed.

I believe that if you keep these things in mind you can get your Dexis sensor repair done right and save yourself thousands of dollars over purchasing a new sensor.

Week 2 - Digital Intra Oral X-Ray Sensors - The Good The Bad And The Ugly - Part 2

Digital Intra Oral X-Ray Sensors

-Good Image Quality - Part 1
-Reliability - Part 2
-Price - Part 3
-Functionality - Part 4

Reviewed Sensors:
-Eva by Dent-X (AFP Imaging)
-SuniRay-Suni Corporation (Orange Dental)
-Dixi 3-Planmeca
-Dexis Platinum-Dexis
-CDR Elite-Schick
-Kodak RVG6100- Kodak (Owned By Carestream Now)

Part 2: Reliability

Reliability seems like a very difficult item to judge. Digital X-Ray companies do not fall under the same systems that govern auto parts or other industrial items where the failure rate is known to a very good accu........ Read the rest of the Week 2 - Digital Xray Sensor Review here!

Hardware Drivers For Your Technology

The other day we decided to move a film scanner that we use for scanning digital radiographs and intra oral images to a different computer.  It only took a few minutes to move the radiograph scanner to the other computer but once I plugged ............ Read the rest of the Hardware Drivers For Your Technology article here!

Week 1 - Digital Intra Oral X-Ray Sensors - The Good The Bad And The Ugly - Part 1

The topic is Digital Intra Oral X-Ray Sensors

-A device with either a CCD or CMOS sensor (just like in your digital camera except bigger) and then a coding or solid filter that converts X-rays to light that the sensor can read. Some medical digital X-Ray uses a specially charged plate that can read the X-ray directly without conversion. I do not believe any company is currently using this technology in dental............. Read the rest of the Week 1 - Digital Intra Oral X-ray Sensors - The Good The Bad And The Ugly - Part 1 article here!

Skip the Robot, Talk to a Person

These days, calling technical support can be a real nightmare for a number of reasons: long hold times, unintelligible outsourced operators, and “Tier 1” technicians who almost inevitably know less about the product in question than you do. But the worst of all tech-support injustices is the automated frustration dispensers that companies sometime employ to put you through a labyrinth of touch-tone menus before you can talk to a real person.

But you don’t have to put up with all of that, thanks to Gethuman.com, which tells you—on a company by company basis—exactly what number to call and what buttons to press to get through to a real, human operator.

Shared via MaximumPC.com

Solar Power = Obsolescence of Toothpaste

New technology allows tooth brush to utilize solar rays to catalyze a powerful chemical reaction that could leave your mouth more clean than using toothpaste! "You see complete destruction of bacterial cells," says Kunio Komiyama, the inventor of the device.

Mechanical University of Saskatchewan dentistry professor emeritus Dr. Kunio Komiyama and his colleague Dr. Gerry Uswak (pictured above) are recruiting 120 teens willing to brush with their prototype solar powered toothbrush. The Shiken Company of Japan are paying researchers to investigate whether the brush does a better job of eliminating plaque and bacteria than a conventional toothbrush.

Dr Komiyama's first model, which was described 15 years ago in the Journal of Clinical Periodontology, contained a titanium dioxide rod in the neck of the brush just below the nylon bristles. When light shines on the wet rod it releases electrons. Those electrons react with acid in the mouth which helps break down plaque....NO TOOTHPASTE REQUIRED!

Dr Komiyama's newest model of the toothbrush, the Soladey-J3X, apparently packs twice the checmical power than the original prototype. There is a solar panel at the base of the Soladey-J3X which transmits electrons to the top of the toothbrush through a lead wire.

I would be interested to see what kind of feeling the toothbrush leaves your mouth with. I love the clean mouth feeling I get after brushing with my traditional paste, how would this toothbrush compare? How would this toothbrush affect bad breathe? These are some of the questions I want answered.

What is your opinion?

Article via Shiken Co. Ltd.

Do You Know Which Of YOUR Programs Are Accessing The Internet?

TCPEye is a nifty little program that is easily downloaded that will show you exactly how many programs on your PC are accessing the Internet. TCPEye also monitors your system and alerts you of any current open TCP/IP and UDP ports on your PC.

Within the TCPEye program you can right click on any process and choose from the following options:

• Resolve Address
• End the Process
• Close the Connection
• Look Up The IP Address's Whois information
• And Much Much More!

TCPEye also allows for sound alerts or balloon notifications whenever a new process begins accessing the Internet keeping you well informed to prevent any unwanted connections.

TCPEye provides a laundry list of information about each open port such as:

• Process Name
• Path Of The Process
• Info About The Process
• Time In With The Process Was Created
• Country That The Process Originates From, Including The Country's Flag
• Color Coding Of Connection States
• Name Of The User That Created The Process

TCPEye also allows you to save the TCP/UDP information to a HTML, XML, or Text file for easy future referencing.

TCPEye is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008.

You can download TCPEye via CNet.com

Just Hear It: Free Music, Just Type It

Here's something fun for everyone! Ever had a song stuck in your head? Do you have a song that pumps you up and really gets your day going? For a fantastic, quick, and free way to listen to any tune you like all you've got to do is type it.

Light Up The Room (Literally) With Your Smile

Yearning for professional-quality whitening minus the cost and tooth sensitivity? Jonathan B. Levine, DMD, PC, says his innovative GLO (guided light optics) device is the answer. Launching at HSN on February 1 and Sephora stores in April, the glow-in-the-dark system is $275 (in-office whitening costs up to $650) and consists of a reusable mouthpiece, case, control, charging dock, and USB cable lanyard—plus a 10-pack of whitening gel vials.

So why incorporate light and heat into the traditional at-home tray-whitening method? “The light and heat allow the user to get the efficacy of a pro whitening treatment at home,” says Levine. “The closed circuit system activates the hydrogen peroxide in the whitening solution and accelerates the whitening process.”

The not-too-hot mouthpiece also allows for a gentler experience, adds Levine, who says that high levels of hydrogen peroxide are responsible for tooth sensitivity: “Because the whitening is aided by light and heat, the GLO gel only contains about 6.7 percent hydrogen peroxide.”

Though it looks like something out of the futuristic world of Tron, Levine says using the electro-whitening tool is actually pretty simple. Start by popping open a vial and squeezing out some minty whitening solution. Once covering your top and bottom choppers with it, apply the mouthpiece and loop the control over your neck (when eight minutes is up it will flash blue). After doing four eight-minute sessions in a row—you’ll use up one tube of gel total during the 32-minute treatment—you’re good to go.

According to the doc, doing this routine three to five days in a row—every six months—will keep your smile glowing brightly. We’re ready to try it, are you?

Source: http://fashion.elle.com/beauty/2011/01/25/light-up-the-room-literally-with-your-smile/?cid=el:stu:beauty:your-smile:

2020: We Will Be Able To Wear Sony Computers On Our Wrist

Our current need for constant internet connectivity is so strong that we have high tech "Smart" phones, mini netbooks with wireless aircards, laptops, desktops, pc's in refrigerators, pc's in our closets, in our cars, and just about everywhere you might go.

Due to this popular demand for internet attachment everywhere we go Sony has released images of what could very well be the next step in constant personal internet connection. Being only 10 years away from a possible release to the general public it's pretty exciting to see where our technology is heading for the future.

The Sony Nextep Computer is being developed to be worn as a bracelet, the computer concept is constructed out of a flexible OLED touchscreen, has a holographic projector (for screen), pull out extra keyboard panels and, of course, social networking compatibility.

How many of you think we'd be buying such gadgets?

German Dental Staff Wear Low-Cut Dresses

A German dentist has ordered low-cut dresses for herself and her nurses to distract patients as she works on their teeth. Dr. Marie Catherine Klarkowski whose practice is in Munich in southern Germany said that she came up with the idea after watching the way male visitors to the local Oktoberfest enjoyed looking at the traditional low-cut Dirndl dresses. So she ordered for herself and her 10 staff similar frilled blouses in the same style with low cut cleavages and tight bodices that work like a push-up bra.

Read the full story here....

Super Computer, Schmuper Computer; Give Me An Old DOS Machine!

Inside Microsoft's Quincy Cloud Farm!

Most dental practices have a single file server, what if you needed a little more beef than just one meesly file server? Just imagine ordering your first Quincy Cloud Farm. You send your server specs over to Microsoft and in a few short weeks (maybe less) a massive tractor trailer with a crane arrives at your practice.

First, the crane lifts off a humungo freighter style container, loaded with ohhhh around 2,000 servers, and gently places it next to your building. Than the crane slowly moves back to the 30 foot open bed trailer and lifts off another unit about half as thick as your server container but just as long, plops that on the top of your server container and voila! You now have a massive super computer capable of computing all of your dental technology needs at light speed.

Ok, maybe it's all a dream...but the 2,000 server filled freighter container really does exist....I swear! Check it all out at Data Center Knowledge's website.

How Hot Is Your Wireless Signal?

Ever wonder what the wireless internet signal strength is in your office? Ever feel like your laptop is super fast when you're in your living room but when you're in your bedroom you just cant seem to get a signal?

This great new tool from Ekahau called HeatMapper gives you a heat map of your office, home, school, or wherever you are to allow you to actually see where the best wireless internet signal is!! It's super easy to use and all it takes is a simple download to have you checking wireless signals in your office!

Oh, did I mention its FREE?

Apologize for the Delay

For those that don't know, my wife is about 34 weeks pregnant. The other day when driving to her Dr's appointment she was hit by another driver! The car was totaled but luckily the accident happened right in front of the hospital where her Dr is. When she continued on to her Dr's appointment she started having contractions about 2 minutes apart so the Dr sent my wife up to the maternity ward for monitoring of her and the baby. By the end of the day her contractions slowed down to almost non existent but the Dr still kept my wife in the hospital for monitoring.

Shes back home now and her and the baby are A-OK :)

Keep It Super Simple: A Dental Technology Integrator's Mantra

Nothing is more frustrating for a dental technology integrator like myself than going into a new network that is just a complete mess. I just did a basic install of some digital x-ray sensors in an office that already had prof.suni and dentrix. As I am going through the workstations loading drivers I see that windows firewall is on, anti virus real time scan is on with no exclusions set, and the current IT guy has like 5 mapped drives all mapping multiple ways to get to the same location. It was just a big mess............ Read the rest of the Keep It Super Simple: A Dental Technology Integrator's Mantra article here!

Lab Coats, Clean Rooms, Robotic Arms: Oh My!

If your anything like me than you probably have a whole slew of electronics; digital cameras, cell phone, laptop, camcorder, etc. With each of these devices you generally use a memory card to capture all of your memories, documents, and media. Ever wonder how those memory cards are made?

Massive clean rooms more clean than a hospital operating room, scientists in lab coats and dust masks, blazing fast and precise robotics laying solid gold wire and soldering terminals all done at mesmerizing speeds. We're talking sci-fi type stuff!

Wanna see?

The guys over at Lexar, leading global provider of memory products for digital media, hooked us up with a behind the scenes video of how their memory cards are made. Enjoy! :)

Too Much: Too Few: What To Do

With all of the different blogs, forums, websites, twitters, facebooks, and everything else on the internet. Sometimes it can be tough keeping up on your favorite writers or your favorite companys and the deals that they might be advertising. Ever wonder how the technologically advanced are able to follow, tweet, blog, and post so many different interesting things without skipping a beat?

There are many different programs that you can use to keep current with all of the information you need to ingest on the daily.

RSS feed is one of my favorites. RSS will feed all of your favorite blogs to your cell phone or computer in a quick and simple format for easy reading.

Check out this list of 45 Different Services, Sites, and Apps to Help You Read Your Favorite Sites

Local IT Person: To Use Or Not To Use

With the Electronic Records Mandate being enforced soon most dental practices need to start putting together a plan on how to go paperless. In my experience there are the dental practices that go with a local IT person, and than there are the practices that go with a specialized dental technology integrator.

At a very minimum you should at least consider using a dental technology integration company that specializes in practice management software, image management, intra oral cameras, and digital radiography, in conjunction with your local IT person........... Read the rest of the Local IT Person: To Use or Not To Use article here!

View What Doesn't Want To Be Viewed

Ever receive an email from someone with a document that you really need but when you go to open it you find that you haven't the right software to open it? Now there's a simple solution that will allow you to read your document quickly and get back to work, without even needing to register.

Here is a listing of the file formats currently supported:

• Microsoft Office – doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, & pps
• OpenDocument – odt, ods, & odp
• OpenOffice – sxw, sxc, & sxi
• Other Formats – rtf, txt, html, csv, & tsv

Check out Zoho's new online conversion and viewer tool

How-To Geek also povides a great How-To on Zoho's new viewing tool.