My first Assistive Technology meeting (ATIA) and foot mouse Boomer
As I’m flying home from Orlando this weekend from my first Assistive Technology meeting (ATIA) I've sure got a lot to process. This was our first meeting for our new foot mouse Boomer. I've always thought that our patent & foot operated mouse would be so handy for so many people that have a hard time using a hand mouse but I had no idea that I would learn so much in the process. There are so many products made to help so many people from allowing people to use a computer from a bed to helping people with Alzheimer’s and I saw several people with their seeing eye dogs beside them. I found that there was a lot of heart in this Assistive technology industry, these are hardworking people that try to figure out what is going to help their students or patients!
I was very excited at the interest we had in Boomer, there wasn't anything like our foot mouse, there are foot switches & on off switches, but nothing like our wireless foot mouse! We even found that the Dental R.A.T. might have a place in assistive technology as it has numbers that can be programmed to a computer or tablet for different shortcuts like turning on a light or the tv or different macros on the computer. And many people told us that they didn't think it had to be ran by a foot that the mouse could be ran with the hand or arm for someone with just limited movement. Everyone liked how modern Boomer looked and thought that adults and kids would love to use it too! They loved how it would run a Mac or PC and being wireless was a hit too!
I’m anxious to get Boomer The Foot Mouse to market and get testimonials loaded soon!!
RDHUOR this year in Vegas
I got to meet Nancy Burkhart at RDHUOR this year in Vegas and what an honor!
I thought she'd be just another pretty lady, but nope she is a brainiac;))
She has a BS in Dental Hygiene, a masters in Occupation Health Education, Doctor of Education, Adult Ed. She is founder and co-host of The International Oral Lichen Support Group. The group was founded in 1997 offering support, referral and educational information to patients who suffer from oral lichen planus. She is a columnist for Pennwell Publications writing the oral case studies column monthly since 2007, and co-author of General and Oral Pathology for The Dental Hygienist through Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore. The textbook is now in the 2nd edition and the new edition was released in January,2013. She provides seminars on health related topics such as mucosal diseases, lichen planus, tongue talk,tongue and nail analysis, stress reduction, eating disorders, skin disorders and work-life balance for you and your office staff.
And then she wrote a nice article in RDH, here is the online version if you'd like to check it out. Article http://www.rdhmag.com/profiles.html
We are officially launching Boomer the Foot Mouse at the ADA in New Orleans this Oct30th!
We are so excited to launch this new foot mouse for the dentists and surgeons and even the general public that has trouble using a regular hand mouse. We decided to move forward after many dentists purchased their hygienists Dental R.A.T.s then asked for a foot mouse for their room- to open X-rays, check their schedule, run their intraoral camera, whatever they need to do without touching their hand mouse.
We are currently taking preorders for the new foot mouse for half price, it will be priced at $895 and we are offering $450 if preordered with delivery in 2014.
We are calling it Boomer because it looks like a boomerang and we feel like "it’s the mouse you'll always come back to" :))
New Xylitol Candy - Ice Chips!
We are super excited to be able to offer Ice Chips xylitol candy at our booth now! We saw the ladies on
Shark Tank and then ran into Charlotte after the Oregon meeting. What a treat, literally:))
So we get to have a couple fun products at our booth! These Ice Chips taste like candy, but no sugar, or carbs and they are good for us, they are great for our diabetic patients and patients with dry mouth and help to decrease cavities by eating the strep mutans- but you probably already knew that, I think they taste good:))
So the next dental meeting you get to go to come see us and check out the ice candy and our favorite foot mouse :))
And if you ever want any or to resell them in your office go to
www.icechipscandy.com and you can use our code: BLDR or mention Dental R.A.T.
Boomer The Foot Mouse is getting some attention! We have been getting a lot of great press the last couple months, here are a couple links to some of the newspaper articles about our new foot mouse in our area. Idaho Tribune We are also anxious to see the cable show that we are being featured on in February! Ion Network’s show “Worlds Greatest…” is featuring us, we don’t have the exact date yet but we are excited!!! They will be talking about the Dental R.A.T. and also our new foot mouse for the medical, surgical or disabled market “Boomer The Foot Mouse”. We’ll keep you posted, it’s a great start to 2013!
The Boomer Foot mouse and an opportunity!
So, I have a favor to ask and something awesome to provide! I'm excited because we've been selected as a finalist in the VoltCrowd $50K Challenge, the challenge starts today and we are attempting to raise $50,000 over the next 5 weeks for Boomer the Foot Mouse.
We would love to have you support our campaign by being the first contributors. Without your support as with anything in life, we are unlikely to get off the ground and succeed.
The way crowd funding works is that if you contribute a certain amount, you will receive a perk or reward. We have some fantastic perks available, for example, for $25 you will get a cool tshirt that says "Do it with your foot" OR you can preorder one of the first Boomers for half off what retail will be!!
You can visit the link here: http://search.voltcrowd.com/campaign/detail/581
I can't do this without you! With your support we are going to change many peoples lives!!
Many Thanks and Blessings!!
Becky
I was so honored to meet and get to introduce the Dental R.A.T. to several Taiwan buyers. We met with several buyers for health and beauty supplies. They have had a strong relationship with the Idaho Department of Commerce and they enjoy working with Idaho companies. It was a fun day and evening with all of the buyers and several other companies around the Treasure Valley that are interested in international trade.
We got to introduce them to Basque food and they got to see several companies based here in Idaho. Its so neat to meet with so many other companies and learn about their products also! Here are a few Idaho companies I was honored to be amongst:
I really enjoyed learning more about Taiwan and their culture also! Very nice people!
Entering Europe with the Dental R.A.T.!
We are officially going to be entering Europe with the Dental R.A.T.! So we have signed up for the EuroPerio meeting in Vienna Austria! We are so anxious to take our foot mouse out into more countries and of course very anxious to get to go to Germany! We really feel that a foot mouse will be very well accepted over in Europe as they have regulations requiring infection control in the dental operatories. The EuroPerio dental meeting only happens every 3 years and alternates its location. It is June 6-9 2012. There are 82 countries represented at this dental meeting- yet it is an english speaking conference with world renown speakers! Sounds like a great place to go doesn’t it?
If you would like to read more information about this dental conference just click EuroPerio.
As we've gotten more Dental R.A.T.s out there we have had many doctors ask for a smaller one with just a mouse with left and right mouse clicks for opening up x-rays and running intra-oral cameras in their operatories. While researching this new unit, we realized that this new one would work very well also in the disabled market, for the general public that has a hard time using a hand mouse. Since my patent covers this we decided to move forward & we have received an SBIR grant award to move forward. So we are currently in the middle of research & development for our new smaller foot mouse (no name yet:)). There are a lot of people that either have arthritis or carpal tunnel or missing limbs. It would be so fun to have something to offer them that is wireless, simple and easy to use with one foot. Its coming... so keep your eyes out. In the meantime the existing Dental R.A.T. will work for those with upper extremity disabilities, but the new one will be smaller and without the numbers.
Interesting Perio Products
We always get to learn about new products at all the shows we go to but at the AAP Perio meeting in Miami we had some very interesting neighbors. I thought I'd pass their info on since you might be interested in periodontal products if you are looking at the Dental R.A.T. to help perio chart:) At the time the Periowave was still waiting for FDA approval; by now it could be approved but I thought I would share the info!
I know its usually very overwhelming at the meetings to visit all of the exhibits and often people feel so "attacked" by the "sales people". But most of us have new products that we are paying big bucks for a booth to show you and we want a chance to get to talk to as many people as we can to get the word out. I know before I branched into the other side of hygiene into sales I didn’t realize that people paid thousands of dollars to have a booth at these meetings just to talk to me, nor did I realize most have been flying all over the country from show to show pretty much every week! I just knew I was being treated by my doctor to get to go to a meeting and learn what I could- and have fun with the team:)
I realize a lot of offices haven't been traveling as much lately and so I thought I'd pass on a little of what I saw new at the AAP perio meeting:)
PerioWave -
Periowave.com - photodisinfection for the treatment of gum disease - Periowave™ is a non-antibiotic therapy that, unlike antibiotics, quickly destroys gram negative bacteria without promoting the development of bacterial resistance. Periowave™ does not exhibit many of the issues commonly associated with antibiotics, such as allergic or sensitivity reactions, opportunistic infections such as oral yeast infections, or the requirement to take prolonged doses of medication. As Periowave™ utilizes a cold (non-thermal), low-power diode laser as the activating light, it does not cause damage to root surfaces or surrounding tissues. There is no heat involved in this process.
NovaBone -
Novabone.com - NovaBone® is a calcium phospho silicate composed of elements naturally occurring in the body and has the proven ability to signal genetic pathways to accelerate natural bone growth.
