Tag: opinion

Are We Adapting Technology to Treatment, or Treatment to Technology?

~ Shadi Samawi ~ Leave a comment

Sometimes technology is a better way to do the wrong thing. Be careful!

Dr. Bill Arnett | FABKnoweldge

With the recent growth and explosion of important technologies in 3D printing and scanning, we are also seeing a concomitant quantitative “explosion” of cases – mostly shared through social media – that are being treated through adapting these technologies to the manufacturing of customized appliances. This is an excellent and most welcome advancement for sure, yet it does seem – at least to me and a number of like-minded colleagues – that we are going through a period of initial hyper-excitement over the capabilities we have at hand at the moment, and that many seem to be using them practically on every patient they treat, simply because they can! The above quote from Dr. Bill Arnett is a real philosophical eye opener. Although he is an avid user of new technologies in the field of Orthodontics, he is very much aware of the potential pitfalls.

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Enlightenment In Orthodontics : Entropy, Evolution & Information

~ Shadi Samawi ~ 5 Comments

WARNING: This Blog Post Will Make You THINK!

We start the new year with a mind-provoking, philosophical Guest Blog post by Prof. Dr Anmol Kalha, Professor Emeritus, Distinguished Professor and Advisor / CIDS, Associate Director & Advisor / Max Health Care, and Chief Architect and Cofounder of Smart Health.ai. He is also widely known among his contemporaries as The Orthodontic Philosopher. 

“Dare to understand : one age cannot conclude a pact that would prevent succeeding ages from extending their insights, increasing their knowledge and purging their errors.” ~ Immanuel Kant

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The Rise of the “Misguided” Online Consultation: Patient Expectations vs. Reality

~ Shadi Samawi ~ 1 Comment

“Blindness and Error can change a life as surely as Judgement and Reason can.”  ~ M. Morris

As social media and the internet in general take hold of almost every aspect of our lives, with their apparent ease of access and speed of response, we tend to infer that we can really do EVERYTHING in the virtual world. This notion has clearly spread throughout all fields of industry, marketing and certainly impacting the field of health services in general. In this blog post I’d like to discuss the downsides of people’s misguided perceptions that online medical/dental consultations are a viable and reliable form of enquiry into their health issues.

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The “Big Picture Approach”: Orthodontic Problem Solving From a Bird’s Eye View

~ Shadi Samawi ~ 3 Comments

“When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail.” ~ Abraham Maslow

When facing critical problems and difficulties in our case progression and mechanics during orthodontic treatment, we sometimes struggle with finding the right solution and seem to be going deeper into complexity, and often, nothing seems to be working! In such situations, it’s always useful to remember to see the big picture of the situation first, before drowning further in the little details.

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Truth… or Dare?

~ Shadi Samawi ~ 1 Comment

“If Truth is Your Enemy, Then You Have a Major Marketing Problem!”

~ Prof. William Proffit

Interesting news this week, where dentistrytoday.com reported that OrthoAccel Technologies – the company manufacturing and marketing Acceledent; its product that the company “claims” speeds up orthodontic tooth movement by up to %50 – has been found to be pushing out “misleading marketing” to the public, as ruled by The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the United Kingdom, after reviewing available evidence.

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JAWS – Dr. Proffit and Dr. Ackerman Review a “Sensationalist” Book!

http://www.manlydesign.com.au/project/shark-braces/
~ Shadi Samawi ~ Leave a comment

“Science, my boy, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which are useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth.”
― Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

It’s been a while since I last posted on the blog due to work and family time constraints, but we’re back this time with a review of a review!

As the title suggests, this post is about a review posted by Prof. William Proffit, James Ackerman and Tate Jackson on the blog The Orthodontics Professors. It is a review of a new book by Dr. Sandra Kahn and Paul R. Ehrlich entitled; Jaws: The Story of A Hidden Epidemic. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018 (Apr.

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There’s Something About MDP (Mobile Dental Photography)!..

~ Shadi Samawi ~ 3 Comments

“Every photograph is a battle of form versus content.” ~ Garry Winogrand

As many of you probably know, Mobile Dental Photography (MDP) has been gaining track in recent years as smartphone technology advances in terms of sensor quality, resolution, and lens sophistication, leading to much improved image quality over the last few years. MDP has also caught on mainly due to smartphones being relatively smaller and lighter than a Digital SLR camera and so many clinicians prefer the “lighthearted” nature of it.

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What happens during Orthodontic Tooth Acceleration? Surgical Procedures for Accelerating Orthodontic Treatment

~ Shadi Samawi ~ 2 Comments

OK, so what’s the speed of “Dark”? ~ Steven Wright

Today’s guest blog post is by colleague Dr. Samer Mheissen, currently in private practice in Damascus, Syria, and is the Section Editor for the International Journal of Contemporary Orthodontics (See short C.V. at the bottom of the post). He shares with us some of his thoughts and opinion regarding the topic of Surgical Orthodontic Tooth Acceleration.

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