Combining Internet with Dentistry

Internet, the final frontier of knowledge and information- is now popularly called the information superhighway. You might not have used computer for storing clinical information or for accounts, but today if you desire easy access to latest information, you must buy a computer to access the Internet.

It is not possible to discuss all aspects of Internet here, but the most popular and commonly used service on the Internet is WWW or world wide web. Interested governments, companies, associations, professionals, universities or individuals put information on Internet in form of webpages, these can be viewed by accessing WWW on the Internet.

I did a search on Internet for word "dentistry" it came up with the list of more than 100,000 websites. These sites have been put up by universities, associations, health bodies, publishers, manufacturers and individuals etc. These sites contain a wealth of information and also lot of junk. One has to sieve this information to get the useful material. Our Health Care Trust also has the website, the address is http://www.healthmantra.com/hctrust/ . This kind of address is for the website and is known as URL (universal resource locator) with this address only, we can access the desired site. We also have plans to put this newsletter on Internet in near future.

Following useful information is available on Internet:

1- Online journals on dentistry

1. Free Medline services
1. All product information through websites of leading companies
2. Distant learning programs from American universities.
3. Lot of useful software and demonstrations.
4. Tutorials on different dental subjects.
5. Libraries of dental pictures etc.
6. Online purchase of dental materials( not much useful in India at present)
7. Discussion groups on different subjects to take opinion and advice of colleagues from all over the world.(I am member of Electronic Study Club for Orthodontics, this is operated from California, USA)
8. Lot of information for patients from consumer’s view point.

Some of useful sites are
www.ada.org (American Dental Association)
www.dentalshop.com
www.dental-resources.com
www.oralcancer.org
www.dds-online.com