3 things you missed at CDA Presents on Thursday

ANAHEIM, CA - The California Dental Association's CDA Presents show opened on Thursday in Anaheim, with thousands of dental professionals and hundreds of exhibitors in attendance on a very warm day in Southern California.

The following are three highlights from Thursday at the conference:

New products showcased on the exhibit floor.
More than 90 new products were introduced at the conference, including products from Carestream, BioHorizons, DEXIS, Henry Schein, Instrumentarium, Philips Zoom, Prexion, Ultradent, and many more.

The exhibit floor was crowded as companies focused more on products than on entertainment, with the notable exception of an Austin Powers look-a-like.

One company that caught the eye was BrushBuddies, which has recently launched licensed products mostly aimed at the pediatric market that include World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Garfield, and Lady Gaga. Focused on both the dental practice and the retail market, the company makes manual and power toothbrushes and related products.

 The BrushBuddies Poppin toothbrush attracted considerable attention on Thursday at CDA Presents.

The BrushBuddies Poppin toothbrush attracted considerable attention on Thursday at CDA Presents.

Henry Schein launches surgical solutions group.
Henry Schein looks to grow in the surgical practices front. As we have reported, Henry Schein has launched a new group, Henry Schein Dental Surgical Solutions. The new group will specialize in providing a comprehensive package of specialty products and a complete suite of services to oral and maxillofacial surgeons and periodontists, according to the company.

Company representatives told DrBicuspid.com that they have more than 40 outside sales consultants on this team. The company looks to be able to serve all aspects of a surgical practice and become an all-in-one resources for those practices.

Are you in the cloud?
More companies are offering cloud storage solutions. As practices move to digital images and electronic health and financial records, they may also want to move away from security and storage issues. (Do you back up your data? Is your patient's data safe from hackers?) Edward Shellard, DMD, chief medical officer of Carestream Dental, explained his company's three new launches, including the CS SoftDent Cloud practice management sofware (the others are the CS 8100 3D imaging system and the RVG 6200 digital oral sensor), this afternoon.

Edward Shellard, DMD, chief medical officer of Carestream Dental, at his company's booth at the CDA meeting.

Edward Shellard, DMD, chief medical officer of Carestream Dental, at his company's booth at the CDA meeting.

The CS SoftDent Cloud is the latest cloud version of the company's practice management software. The product offers a full suite of practice management software tools to increase productivity and streamline daily workflow, according to the company.

CS SoftDent Cloud includes insurance benefits tracking, electronic patient charts, and detailed financial reports available at any time, from any location. Sensitive patient and practice management files are securely backed up and maintained by Carestream Dental in HIPAA-compliant storage, the company noted.

For practices that have embraced digital imagery and electronic medical records, cloud storage is a logical step that offers access to data anywhere and on just about any platform.