What makes technology work?

And how can it be done better?

Those are the questions we’re always asking ourselves here at ClaroNav, whether we’re sitting around our boardroom table during our weekly meeting, or standing in front of work tables, doing production.

By this point, we’re all used to technology enhancing our abilities, but there’s something exciting about being the one who is spearheading new technology. If you don’t already know, our system is providing dentists with what’s essentially a GPS for the mouth.

Basically our technology gives dentists real time and dynamic navigation so they can accurately place dental implants, instead of having to guesstimate or cut entire sections of the gum open (flaps as you call it) to see the bone.

There have been systems in the past that focused on dynamic navigation. But let us ask you this: is their technology in your office right now? Can you name even one of those systems?

If you answered “no”, we’re not surprised.

There are challenges with early stage adoption of new technology. But knowing when to opt in for leading edge technology is a blog post for another time. We’d be happy to explain the different stages of technology, especially in our field.

We’re also not surpized because it takes more than a good idea to succeed in the dental market. You need to take the good idea and realize its full potential.

Consider how many smart phones were created before Apple’s took off. A company really has to get it right in order for the product to gain traction.

One important way to get it right is to ask the right people the right questions.

Fortunately, during the early days, we were able to sit down with some dentists who had used the previous systems and together we flushed out what was really needed to make dental navigation work. This was an important part of the development of Navident.

It’s one thing to figure out how to make technology work (so that if you press this button, that light comes on) but that’s completely different from making technology work for you, the dentist.

So look out for blog posts where we explain how we designed Navident with you in mind. We took that good idea and we ran with it.