The digital superhighway

In the last decade technology has progressed at lightening speed. Ten years ago we were at the end of the dotcom boom (and bust), the web was just in its infancy, Google was a babe-in-arms and Facebook just a twinkle in Mark Zuckerberg’s eye. In the year 2000 there were just 361m internet users; just to put that in perspective it’s around two-thirds of the size of Facebook today. By 2010 usage had exploded to almost 2bn and last year it was close to 2.5bn, clear evidence that the rate of penetration amongst the general public continues apace and engagement with digital communications shows no sign of abating.

The fast moving pace of modern life is something that those of school age are completely familiar and comfortable with, it’s all they have ever known. But what do these new advances in communications mean for dental professionals, whose age range spans several decades? Is it possible to make a real difference to the day-to-day delivery of dentistry by embracing rather than shunning the opportunities that digitisation offers?