2016 Best of Class Technology Award winners announced

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.

The meeting is always fun and the discussions/debates are frequently spirited. In many cases, a member may believe strongly in a particular technology category, but also feel very strongly about support of a certain manufacturer. This can lead to debates about which features are most important, which devices are worth extra costs, etc. Since all of the panel members are also friends, it means we’re not afraid to speak our minds and/or clash a bit over topics. This helps make the process more genuine and helps ensure that you, the reader, get the best possible results when it comes time for us to issue our final decisions.

Those decisions are based on a variety of factors (including the improvement of current products as well as the development of new products or the release of new products in “the beta phase”) that allow us to do some product testing and evaluation before a press release is even written and well before the product appears on the market.
As you review this year’s selections and categories, you’ll notice some repeat winners and some repeat categories. When it comes to our evaluating and voting, we don’t go into the process with any preconceived notions. We also don’t approach the process with any preconceived categories or products in mind. Our goal is to get the best listing and evaluation of our profession’s products and technologies.

Along those lines, we would be thrilled to have more products, technologies and techniques to evaluate. And that means that manufacturers, I am talking to you.

Research and development is not something that can be controlled and made to happen at the whim of the profession. It’s no easier than telling an artist, “create something brilliant today!” In the general terms of our profession, we don’t know what we want but we know we want something different.

However, I can most assuredly tell you this: Creativity can create profits, but profits cannot create creativity. It is imperative that the corporations we partner with and depend on continue to innovate and drive the market. We have seen a bit of a lull in the new product pipeline the last couple of years. Personally I feel this is due to the tough economic times of the last recession. Dentistry has remained flat since that time and the industry hasn’t fully recovered.

However, this is not the time for practices or our supporting manufacturers to sit and wait. No, instead it is time to innovate, to develop new products and to create the future of our profession.

When the innovation tide begins to wash ashore, it will lift all the industry’s boats with it. And when that happens, we will be there to tell you about it with the Best of Class voting!

The 2016 Best of Class Technology Award honorees are:

3Shape TRIOS
AMD LASERS LiteTouch
AMD LASERS Picasso
Bien-Air iOptima/iChiropro
Dentrix Ascend
DEXIS CariVu
Doxa Ceramir C&B
HR for Health
Kerr SonicFill 2
LED VELscope Vx with iPod Touch
MMG Fusion
Orascoptic EyeZoom
Orascoptic Spark
Shofu EyeSpecial C-II
Solutionreach
Vatech Green CT 10x8
WEO Media
Zipwhip

Stay tuned for in-depth coverage of each of the winning products!