According to “Dr. Wo” Wm. Randol Womack, DDS, Board Certified Orthodontist, Editorial Director, Orthotown Magazine

On Gadgetry
by Wm. Randol Womack, DDS, Board Certified Orthodontist
Editorial Director, Orthotown Magazine

The approaching AAO meeting always piques my interest about what new technology advances will be the next "have-to-get-it" application or gadget. I really don't mean to be disrespectful using the term "gadget." Perhaps "enhancement" or "advancement" would be more appropriate? Nonetheless, every AAO meeting since 2008 has been abuzz with excitement about the emerging "latest and greatest" technologies.

I have been a gadget freak since I was a kid. It started with my model train set (ever expanding with a dual transformer and two trains running at the same time) and progressed through five different musical instruments. It continued into my adult years with the first steel-top 1959 Ford convertible, and progressed later starting with one of my many laptops, a Palm PDA, Palm Treo, Blackberry, and iPhone, ending 2010 with the iPad. Do you have your iPad yet?

I have already planned what I need to bring with me as I travel to this year's AAO meeting in Chicago. I need to take my new Windows7 laptop, iPad, iPhone, chargers, ear buds and noise-canceling earphones for the plane. I am already beginning to feel the weight of all these possessions which are now contained in my handy roller computer bag which is approaching 40 pounds. The only reason I can lift it into the overhead compartment is because all the books I used to bring with me are now stored on my iPad.

I digress. So what are we going to do when a scanner (or 3D machine) becomes compatible with Invisalign, SureSmile, Incognito, Insignia and your favorite appliance lab? Will the thought that impressions are no longer needed in your office pop into your head? Have you been anxiously awaiting that day? Will you find financial access to funds to "upgrade" (and market) your office as "impressionless" before your competitor down the way does it first? There is something magic about being first…

Perhaps we have been swayed to buy one gadget too many – no matter how much we lust after the emerging "latest and greatest." A friend of mine who is very loyal to his Amazon Kindle said that recently, on a long plane ride, he was holding his Kindle waiting for the OK to turn on electronic equipment just so he could get back to reading his book. As the minutes ticked by, ever so slowly, he found himself yearning for the "low-tech" gadget that was the "latest and greatest" way back in the 1400s – a book.
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