John Flucke, DDS

Having the right technologies and tools in your arsenal can greatly streamline endo treatment.

Planning for new technology implementation can streamline the process and make the transition much easier.

The threats are changing, making security all the more important in the dental practice.

Let’s take a look at a few ideas of things that could help you make some changes for the better for your dental practice in the last half of 2016.

External marketing may work for some dental practices, but oftentimes the ROI isn't worth the effort. See how internal marketing can be a lot more effective - and much less expensive.

External marketing may work for some dental practices, but oftentimes the ROI isn't worth the effort. See how internal marketing can be a lot more effective - and much less expensive.

Every year, the members of the best of class voting panel get together in Chicago during the Chicago Dental Society’s annual Midwinter Meeting. The idea is to discuss the “latest and greatest” our profession has to offer and then vote on what we feel is truly the “Best of Class” in our profession.

Technology is an interesting thing. Most times we get into it hoping that it will provide an amazing opportunity for us to do some things we haven't done before. Let's take a look that some of the things I've discovered over the years that have truly made a tremendous difference for my practice and myself.

In the last few years our profession has seen an increased focus on the treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) in our practices. Many of us are now asking questions during our initial patient interviews and devoting portions of our patient health history forms to the subject of OSA.

What technologies are under appreciated-or going unused-in your dental practice? Dr. John Flucke explores several technologies you shouldn't be ignoring.

As the old expression goes, the only constant is change. As I type this, the days are getting longer and the holiday season is receding into life’s rearview mirror. Such is the way things go.

It’s that time of year again: Time to list the top five products that I’ve gotten to test and try this year.

The progress of dentistry has been likened to a moving sidewalk where, if you are not moving forward, progress sweeps you backward. Time and again we have seen that you can make the best buggy whips in the world, but if no one is making buggies anymore, your company is doomed to failure.

When it comes to technology and the integration of it, there are many ways to skin the “Technology Cat.” For many, it might mean integrating computers into your daily clinical routine. Or it might mean finally embracing digital radiography and adding that component to your office armamentarium.

So it’s been a while (maybe a long while) since you’ve updated anything and suddenly you’re feeling left out and behind the curve. What to do?

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Keeping current with technology is like trying to walk up the "down" escalator. If you aren't making a concerted effort to keep moving, you'll be headed in the wrong direction simply by standing still.

 As the “technology evangelist,” I sometimes lose myself in reading about and researching different aspects of technology. On occasion, I can go down the technology rabbit hole and disappear for hours at a time. 

You’re familiar with Western Union right? Right? Of course you are. At one point in time, they were reportedly the second largest telegraph company in the world.

Change is inevitable, and it frequently comes painfully to the forefront of our existence.

I remember back in the mid-1990s, I was working with a company that was trying to bring a fairly new dental technology to market. That technology was digital radiography and back then, it required a Herculean effort to even begin to get it to work. I spent countless hours tearing apart computers and adding parts that would allow the sensors to communicate with the computer.

It’s all just ones and zeroes, off and on. It’s just that simple. It’s hard to believe that when a 25-year-old Texas Instruments engineer named Jack Kilby demonstrated the first integrated circuit, one person’s response was “But what is it good for?” That little integrated circuit, the off or on, the one or zero, gave birth to the digital revolution.

As crazy as this may sound, I always wanted to be a dentist. At the age of three, I declared my intentions to my family and then worked toward that goal.I never wanted to be a policeman, a fireman or anything else (OK ... maybe for a few days I wanted to be James Bond, but that had more to do with the girls and gadgets than anything else).

Being the kind of practitioner we all desire to be requires a serious commitment.

I consider myself to be a pretty decent dentist, but I’ve never considered myself to be the kind of guy who could tell his CPA, “Don’t worry about filing for me this year. I’ve got this.” I mean, we all have our core competencies, but mine lie more in the area of linear thought, sketching schematics, programming, clinical testing, and that sort of mundane stuff.

We have seen some tremendous advances in our beloved profession of dentistry in the last 25 years or so. As computing power has increased, research and development in many areas of dentistry has allowed us opportunities to perform procedures that would have had G.V. Black as happy as a hungry shark in a swimming pool full of tuna.

Each year, Dr. John Flucke shares his predictions for emerging and continuing dental industry trends in the coming year. Here are his predictions for 2015.

This year's annual session in San Antonio featured the debut of many innovative new (and improved) products. In this months' edition of Technology Evangelist, we take a look at some of the products that really stood out.

Let's face it. As we add services to our patient treatment, the amount of space we have available in our operatories decreases.

For years now, dentistry has been diagnosing, for the most part, interproximal decay in pretty much the exact same way. Since the introduction of the concept of the bitewing radiograph, the process of locating and diagnosing decay between the teeth has only gone through minor changes.

In the last couple of years, almost every tech lover, from the casual user to the hardcore gear head, has been inundated with a serious dose of “The Cloud”.