Stan Goff is a Managing Editor with MJH Life Sciences, which includes Dental Products Report, Dental Practice Management, Dental Lab Products, Modern Hygienist, and Dentist's Money Digest. He has covered the dental industry since 1999 and can be reached at sgoff@mjhlifesciences.com.  

DPR Top 100: The Top 10 Technology Products of 2023

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2023 marked another year of great innovation in the dental industry, allowing clinicians to serve patients better than ever before. From dental 3D printers and 3D printing resins to intraoral scanners, milling machines, and more, the innovations of 2023 helped clinicians dive deeper into digital dentistry, boosting efficiency, saving money, and improving quality of care.  Here are the top 10 new dental technologies  of 2023. 

DPR Top 100: The Top 10 Software Products of 2023

Year after year, technology changes the dental industry, and 2023 was no exception. Software innovations are constantly changing the way clinicians treat patients, how dental practices operate, and how well they communicate with dental labs and patients. 2023 saw several breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, CAD/CAM, imaging, treatment planning, and more.  Here are the top 10 new software applications of 2023. 

DPR Top 100: The Top 5 Orthodontic Products of 2023

The demand for orthodontic treatments continues to grow, spurred on by aligner and bracket technologies that make those treatments more accessible to clinicians and thus patients. With advanced software to plan cases and visualize outcomes, and better materials and instruments with which to execute those plans, orthodontic treatment is becoming more predictable and effective. Here are the top 5 orthodontic products of 2023.

DPR Top 100: The Top 5 Infection Control Products of 2023

Whether it’s enhancements to personal protective equipment or innovative sterilization and sanitization technology, infection control products play a critical role in any dental practice operation.  Here are the top 5 new infection control products of 2023.

DPR Top 100: The Top 5 Endodontic Products of 2023

Endodontic treatments can provide some of the biggest challenges and most rewarding outcomes for patients and clinicians, but new innovations continue to make saving a patient’s tooth more predictable and less intimidating. 
Here are the top 5 endodontic products of 2023. 

DPR Top 100: The Top 10 Editor's Choice Products of 2023

Although the majority of the products included in the annual Dental Products Report (DPR) Top 100 are selected based on online traffic and other interactions from you, our audience, some impressive innovations do not make an immediate impact. Each year DPR’s editorial staff compiles its own list of exciting products that did not make the cut in their category. 
Here are the top 10 Editor’s Choice products of 2023.  

New artificial intelligence algorithms from VideaHealth. 

Videa Dental Assist from VideaHealth

A new benefits verification artificial intelligence from DentalXChange. 

EligibilityAI from DentalXChange

New Dental Products – January 1 – January 5, 2024

All the latest dental product launches from January 1 through January 5, 2024. 

Lorne Lavine, DMD, founder and president of The Digital Dentist, has more than 30 years invested in the dental and dental technology fields. A graduate of USC, he earned his DMD from Boston University and completed his residency at the Eastman Dental Center in Rochester, N.Y. He received his specialty training at the University of Washington and went into private practice in Vermont until moving to California in 2002 to establish TDD, a company that focuses on the specialized technological and HIPAA needs of the dental community. He can be reached at drlavine@thedigitaldentists.com or 866-204-3398.

DPR Top 100: Dr Lavine's Top 10 Ways to Safeguard Dental Practice Data. Image credit: © Georgina Burrows - stock.adobe.com

Over the past 6-plus years, I have written a monthly column on some specific aspect of dental information technology (IT), cybersecurity, or compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). As anyone who follows technology knows, keeping up with the latest developments is a full-time job. When I work with offices all over the world, their No. 1 concern is figuring out the best and most cost-effective way to protect and secure their critical patient data as well as making sure they follow all applicable local and federal regulations. So in that vein, here is my list of the top 10 ways to safeguard your data and be compliant with HIPAA.

1. Do a formal risk assessment and develop a HIPAA management plan. You would not treat a patient without doing a diagnostic evaluation and presenting a treatment plan, right? Well, HIPAA and cybersecurity work the same way: How do you know where you are deficient and what steps you need to take to correct those issues without looking first? A formal risk assessment is not a 15-minute process where you answer some questions online; done properly, it takes multiple hours to complete and will also take multiple hours to rectify the problems that you discover.

2. Reevaluate your backup and disaster recovery system. For most dentists, there are really 2 parts to this. You want a system that can get you up and running within hours, but equally important, you want something offline that will save you in case the entire office burns down. A local “image” and cloud backup is what I recommend for all offices.

3. There is no reason not to encrypt any devices that contain protected health information. Not only is it a HIPAA requirement, it is your only get-out-of-jail-free card if your data is compromised. All versions of Windows and Windows Server in the past 10 years have a free, built-in encryption software called BitLocker.

4. Speaking of encryption, you really should use an encrypted email system to send and receive emails from patients and referring offices. Most of the better systems will work with your existing email address and almost all are less than $10 per user per month.

5. Although email is the most common way that malware enters your network, a close second is unpatched software with security holes. HIPAA requires that you do “patch management,” and any decent dental IT provider can set up an automated system that handles patching for you.

6. A business-class firewall is your first line of defense against viruses like ransomware. Do not skimp with some home-use router such as Linksys or D-Link; rather, invest in one designed for a small business such as Sophos or SonicWall. Most of the better firewalls have a subscription service that works against viruses that you can add.

7. Every office needs a good, general purpose antivirus software. The antivirus that comes with Windows, Defender, has improved over the past few years, but I still recommend a paid antivirus software such as Emsisoft or ESET NOD32.

8. Although the general-purpose antivirus programs claim to do a good job against ransomware, my experience is that this is not always the case. I highly recommend investing in a ransomware-specific software such as Intercept X.

9. Because many of the newer viruses are so new that your antivirus software will not recognize them as viruses, you should definitely consider a specialized software called application whitelisting. In a nutshell, this type of software only allows preapproved programs to run; anything unapproved, like a virus, is stopped in its tracks.

10. Finally, even with all the best software in the world, nothing beats having a team that is up to speed on best practices for security and compliance. Annual staff training should be a critical component of your regimen.

There are key steps to protect important dental data while simultaneously ensuring they are HIPAA compliant. Here are the top 10 ways to safeguard sensitive data.

DPR Top 100: Dr Lavine's Top 10 Ways to Safeguard Dental Practice Data

Kellie Nock is the assistant editor for Dental Products Report. She graduated from Kent State University in 2018 with a Bachelor's in Journalism. Kellie enjoys multimedia content creation with a focus on audio and video storytelling. 

DPR Top 100: Top 10 Restorative Products of 2023

2023 was a year for innovation in all regards, and restorative dentistry was not exempt from this fact. The year saw the introduction of a diverse array of cutting-edge restorative dental products, each meticulously crafted to deliver forward-thinking, intelligent, and efficient solutions that revolutionized the traditional landscape of dental care.  Here are the top 10 restorative dental products of 2023.  

DPR Top 100: Top 5 Implant Products of 2023

Dental implants have come far in 2023, and so too did the technologies and products related to dental implants. Here are our top 5 dental implant products from 2023