Message from the Universe

Vienna – Sunny, wonderful city of history, memories, charm, Schnitzel, Heuriger, schmaltz, Strauss, waltz and so much more.

On the dental side, the big subject is next month’s EuroPerio7, now clearly the largest perio meeting on the globe.

But right now, it’s the WID – Wiener International Dental – being held at the excellent expo centre here.

Before I mention something negative, let me stress that the exhibition itself was extremely-well laid out, organised and supported.

The weather was too good, and that affects attendance. But most exhibitors and ALL visitors were happy.

Why ALL visitors? Friday evening, the end of the expo faded into the beginning of a ‘happening’ Unbelievable buffet of terrific food, backed by a band on the stage, followed by disco and dance, romping the night away.

From our rooms at the nearby hotel, we could here the rhythmic thumping until early in the morning.

What a party!

But…have a look at the following 2 pictures. On the left, a typical display of the well-known range of diamond points on the Horico stand. On the right, dear friend, soon to retire, so he claims, Helmut Rathmann does not appear to be so happy. And, upon closer observation, you will notice that something is not quite right in picture. He’s a salesperson, but he has nothing to show. That’s because, while he was grabbing a coffee from a stand just meters away, someone stole a large display of diamond and carbide points, valued at around €11,000 (over $14,000).

Yes, it was reported and it was insured.

So, I suppose there are different ways to look at this event. One is that Horico had among the largest ‘turnover’ of any stand, and Helmut is now wondering what commission to request from his employers.

A new definition of ‘chutzpah’?

In any event, if you happen to come across someone who is offering you a surprising quantity of such products, or any of the other items stolen from WID, please do contact me.

Smile – Support your dentist.

admin Uncategorized Europerio7, Helmuth Rathmann, Horico, Theft, Vienna, WID

Happy Passover and Easter to everyone. I am sure I am missing someone’s celebration there – for which I now humbly apologise. To even things out, let’s add my granddaughter’s first birthday, which this year fell on the first day of Passover and Good Friday…Her name is Naya –

Last week, just before Passover, I visited the dental department at Jerusalem’s Haddasah Hospital and University. They have a display of some lovely old dental surgeries there – and many old dental artefacts. But for me, the gem was this display.

The letter says the following:

“December 10th, 1953

To Dr. Bernard E. Gruber, President Alpha Omega Fraternity in New York:

Dear Dr. Gruber, It is undeniable that to contribute to the health of the nation is one of the best services we can render to our Israeli brethren. An indispensable factor is a well-developed dental profession, and we have therefore to be grateful that the Alpha Omega Fraternity has taken the initiative to make possible the establishment of a Dental School at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. I hope that this endeavout will find wide attention and support.

With my best wishes,

Albert Einstein”

And next to the letter, a set of Einstein’s dental models , dated November 14th, 1945. As he was born in 1879, that puts his age at the time the impressions were taken at around 66. Not bad condition, relatively speaking, of course.

Smile – Promote Your Dentist

admin Uncategorized Albert Einstein, Jerusalem's Haddasah Hospital

Since whenever, the Chicago Dental Society (CDS) has been holding their annual conference and trade expo in late February – hence the name ‘MidWinter Meeting’. As in New York, Chicago’s exhibitions were held in a hotel in the old days. That was the Chicago Conrad Hilton, which, for some time, was the largest hotel in the World. The exhibition was famous for its corridors and corners, with booths hidden in the strangest places.  Conference rooms were the hotel rooms upstairs. Yes, strange, but it somehow worked – or at last no one complained.

While the Hilton was being renovated, the expo was switched to the Hyatt on Wacker Drive. Some years later, the McCormick Conference and Exhibition Centre was opened, and since then, that’s where the show has been held.

(Have to add that the Hyatt did retain some fame, even till today: their ‘BIG’ bar, a focal point for all fun-lovers. Renowned for noise, for trumpet-playing barmen, for big windows overlooking the city, and lined with every possible bottle of alcohol).

There is a large conference centre. With multiple lectures etc. being held all the time.

One day before the start of the show, the Dental Trade Alliance (DTA) holds its ‘Preview Show’. That’s where all of its members (mostly manufacturers, but including others, such as Suvison, Infodent and this very Dental Tribune International) have 1 table each, and welcome dealers from all points of the World to view what’s new and have a drink and a chat. It has always proved to be a great meeting place….

But I am digressing. For the highlight of my stay in Chicago was a visit to Crabtree Farm in the little town of Lake Bluff, an hour’s train ride north of Chicago.

You all by now should have noticed that I am a collector of antique English drinking glasses. (It was the English who first put lead in glass and, during the years approx. 1680-1750 monopolised that wonderful world).

(A lovely example of an air-twist…from around 1760)

I won’t clutter your minds – and these pages – with the story leading up to this. For those interested, please contact me directly at stephen.pohlmann@gmail.com). Suffice to say that I was introduced to ‘a glass collector’, a gentleman who has a stunning art collection, which includes such a fantastic range of 17th/18^th century glasses that an important book has now been written on them by the ex-director of Corning glass museum.

I have been asked to respect this gentleman’s privacy, so suffice to say that the visit to his over 100 year-old Crabtree farm, about an hour’s train-ride from Chicago, was a very special experience for my wife and myself.

To call the following ‘the highlights’ would be to diminish the beauty and importance of just about everything on display. This is just a sampling of the wonderful taste, and the manner in which the artefacts are displayed:

• A regularly-used indoor tennis court, over 100 years old, surrounded by artistically-cultivated ivy – and radiators all the way round. Outside, what is considered to be the earliest portrayal of a tennis player, from the early 16^th century.

• Mind-boggling furniture, including tables, rugs, desks, cabinets, beds, gas cookers (still in use), lamps, chandeliers…

• Makepeace furniture (look it up) at/on which we ate sandwiches before departure.

• A combined manual/automatic Steinway grand piano

• And a display of more contemporary American arts and crafts, details of which can be found at the Crabtree website.
• (For those of you have been to Chicago in recent years, you will not have avoided to have been fascinated by the gigantic and fantastic stainless steel bean on Lakeshore Drive. It is a masterpiece of design and a photographer’s fantasy. One wonders how on earth it was constructed. At Crabtree Far, you find out. For, in the garden, you’ll find one of the origin panels used – and here’s me reflected in it).

This was a day to remember, spending time with a very special man – and his wife. Many subjects…but art was the focus, and we were in Heaven.

Smile – Promote your Dentist.

admin Uncategorized Chicago Dental Society (CDS), Crabtree Farm, Lake Bluff

We have friends in Toronto, so if we have to go to the Chicago dental exhibition, why not indeed via one of Canada’s finest cities?

One particular friend, so kindly inviting us to her home for the stay, also booked 2 evenings of very special culture.

The first was a concert at the Royal Conservatory, part of its 125 years celebrations. Wonderful.

Let’s start with the fabulous Koerner Hall. Plenty of images online, but I like showing my own snapshots, legal or not…

The first image is from the stalls, the third is from behind the orchestra, where there are 3 rows of seats. And the middle image is of the extension, across the roof, of the incredible wooden creations, like stretched leaves across the sky, which gives this hall one of the greatest acoustical reputations in the World.

We had the added honour of seeing Leon Fleisher in action. Check this man out on the net. He’s in his early 80s, one of America’s finest musicians. In mid-career, he lost the use of his right hand, and so concentrated on playing pieces specially composed for the left hand – and he started conducting, teaching and becoming known as one of music’s finest spokespersons. More recently, new medicines have helped him play 2-handed again, although last night, he played Prokoviev’s Concerto for Left Hand – then conducted the brilliant young musicians playing Beethoven’s 7^th. Very special.

I met the man later (see below). I asked him whether music for the left hand can be played by musicians with just the right hand. ‘Of course no’ was his reply, and I accepted that, because hands are built differently from left to right and vice versa. But I wondered about this later. Yes, the thumb is certainly in a different category to the pinky. But if trained correctly, surely just about anything is possible.

For instance, I eyed the many violins and violas, and all played right-handed (despite surely some of whom were lefties). Can anyone enlighten me?

Our second evening of culture was seeing the Canadian Opera Company’s production of ‘Love from Afar’, by the Finnish composer, Kaija Saariaho. I think, unless I’m mistaken, that this is the first opera I have seen by a female composer. And I’m going to go out on a limb here, risking the departure of all my female readers, by saying that I hope this is the last opera I shall see by a female composer.

Visually, it was stunning (these images from Google):

The story is as banal as many operas. The singing was excellent – only 3 roles, baritone, soprano and mezzo. But the music….especially with jet-lag still in effect.

OK, been there, done it. No one can accuse me of being critical of that which I have not experienced..

The Four Seasons Hall is also an architectural speciality…

The ‘atrium’ effect is terrific, and again, as in the Koerner Hall above, an abundance of beautiful wooden effects. And glass. I love glass. I collect and write about glass. So to see people’s soles above us in the opera foyer was OK.

A lot of culture in Toronto.

Smile – Promote your dentist.

admin Uncategorized Love from Afar, Royal Conservatory, Toronto

Israel’s a place you must come and visit, and it’s connections to the dental world are not ignored.

Above is a very important image. It shows Johnny and Phillip in a marzipan mouth. And you can find it at the Marzipan Museum in Kfar Tabor. This is one of the 3 villages, this one Jewish the other 2 Arab, located on Mount Tabor, famous for being the location of the Transformation of Jesus Christ and also the site of the battle between Barak and the army of Jabin, commanded by Sisera during the leadership of the Israelite judge Deborah in the mid 14th century BCE. (Thanks, Wiki-P).

Dental people are usually fascinated by Israel. Jörg and Johannah Marchesani are spending a week here. Jörg is now semi-retired; he was the owner of the Willvonseder & Marchesani company in Vienna/Austria, which was, among other things, the agent for the Oral B line.

Here are the Marchesanis at Belvoir Fort, one of the 14 Crusader forts in Israel, and one of the best-preserved. The following is from Wikipedia:

“The Knights Hospitaller purchased the site from Velos, a French nobleman, in 1168. Standing 500 metres (1,600 ft) above the Jordan River Valley, the plateau commanded the route from Gilead into the Kingdom of Jerusalem and a nearby river crossing.^[2] To the north was the Sea of Galilee and west were hills.”

We then visited Yardenit, where John baptised so many, and where, today, so many wish to be baptised. This picture shows some nuns feeding the ever-present and very friendly sea rats who share the limelight with the ceremonies.

And the following (I think great) image is of our Austrian couple lost in the Winter mist while walking on Mount Herzl, site of the graves of Israel’s past-leaders: Lea and Itzhak Rabin, Golda Meir, Levi Eshkol and the man himself.

So a place to see…

Stephen

Smile – Promote Your Dentist

admin Uncategorized Barak, Israel, Jabin, Kfar Tabor, Marzipan Museum

I’m an Englishman – not in New York, but overseas. Coming back to ‘my country’ always brings strange emotions. E.g., I forget the new value of the £ and am sometimes shocked at the price of a coffee, a hotel room, a ride on the bus, or a theatre ticket.

I also grew up with the NHS, the National Health System, knowing that the waiting room is dark and dank, with 5 year-old magazines and frayed seat covers. The surgery? Don’t ask…

But now I am back, co-traveling with salesmen from the Optident company, and I am discovering that the UK is no longer stuck in the past. Surgeries are modern, clean, beautiful, Uniforms are colored, decent art on the wall. Flowers at reception are real and there is a conference room We are offered coffee from a sophisticated espresso machine (I think I eyed George Clooney having a tooth extracted in one of the surgeries), and iced water is available.

As you enter the office, you are facing an elegant cabinet that displays some of the mostly glass trophies that have been awarded to them….

Here’s Katy Hails, dental hygienist, happy to be working in such a classy environment….

‘Creating Beautiful Smiles’….How’s that for a classy name. Look at this terrific business card design……

And then we visited the Smile Spa.

Smile – Promote your dentist.

admin Uncategorized English, NHS, Optident, Pound Sterling

Something really good happened recently.

I live in Israel. I’m often asked why, and my immediate response is that I met and fell in love with an Israeli lady. Being as strong as they are, I eventually had to move to where she felt at home. (The lovely weather also had something to do with the decision. London was my original home, a place not famous for its sunshine).

But now, 27 years later, there are at least a couple of other good reasons for being pretty happy with where I am from.

If you have been reading this blog, you will have seen reps from Schein Holland enjoying their ‘bonus trip’ to Montana, where my company, American Eagle, have their factory.

Well, when that decision was made, there were whispers from the inside sales staff at Schein, which appeared to say “what about us”.  I shall not enter the discussion of which dept. at a dental supply company have the most influence on sales. Suffice to say that we felt the inside staff needed to be ‘recognised’.

The result was 2 groups of them coming for long weekends to Israel.

1^st and 2^nd groups

On the left, you can see them with my wife, Aviva, tasting some of Israel’s terrific wine. (I’m hiding behind Aviva – only possible since losing considerable amount of weight).

On the right, the 2^nd group are posing in Jaffa, with a panoramic view of Tel Aviv behind them.

The weather was better for the first group; coats had rarely to be worn. We had some rain for trip-2, which caused the stone pavements of Jerusalem and Jaffa to be a little slippery. The result was 1 bruised back and a badly cut knee. But those were the only negatives….

Group 1 scenes:

Jerusalem – At the Western (Wailing) Wall – Walking through Moslem Quarter to reach Austrian Hospice hotel in the Old City.

Bathing in the Dead Sea – currently subject of an International campaign to become one of the World’s 7 Wonders, which would help save it from drying up and losing its unique qualities – and touristic attraction.

Tamara applies the famous mud on Tim’s torso – rendering his skin soft and healthy for the rest of his life.

And then rinsing it all off – and the salt, too.

Learning about Haifa’s fabulous Baha’i Gardens, centre of yet another religion in Israel.

And group 2 –

Also at the Wall, this time showing the Al Aqsa Mosque behind…And ‘The Boys’ at sea level, on the way down…

Posing before an exhibit at a fabulous show of paper art in a northern Israel kibbutz – and witnessing pilgrims from all parts of the World being baptised in the waters of the River Jordan.

They came away happy…

Stephen

Smile – Promote Your Dentist

admin Uncategorized

What a lovely old town this is…

You can argue the rights and wrongs of holding the national dental expo outside Oslo, but every few years, it IS held here – and in Stavanger and, I believe, occasionally all the way further North in Trondheim. This is such an incredibly long country, with population spread everywhere, the dentist in those areas deserve the attention…

Last night, we exited from the Indian restaurant and were blasted with the sights and sounds of a great firework display – Not quite sure of the occasion, but it went on for some minutes. Lucky us..(and thanks to Streve Jobs & Co. for this technology)..

Saw a very strange statue in town, and not sure the DTI censors will allow it…

And you thought the Norwegians were prudish.

And I, as a visitor from Israeli, was a little concerned about the left-wing attitude towards the Middle East.

Then along comes Dr. Kjetil Børre Ødegaard who, apart from ordering some of my dental instruments, and upon hearing that I am from Israel, ripped open his shirt and revealed a souvenir from his family’s recent trip to Israel…

(Wow…I hope this doesn’t offend anyone……)

The exhibition, you ask? It’s being held at the Grieghallen, which sounds quite grand (you must ALL know Grieg’s music, his wonderful Piano Concerto in A Minor). But most of the expo is held a floor down – in the car park! Well, that’s what it was at least, and that’s where most of us are. But a good size, decent spaces between stands, plenty of snacks, coffee, ice cream and dental samples available. So my wife will be happy.

Smile – Promote Your Dentist

admin Uncategorized Bergen, Stavanger

Did you know?

I’ve been visiting the Belgian dental schools….stayed overnight in Antwerp. I had forgotten what a beautiful city centre it has. In some ways, the main square has more character than the famous Grand Place in Brussels.

And there, in full magnificence, this terrific statue..

The cab driver explained in detail to me…confirmed unfortunately by Wikipedia..

Antigoon was this horrible giant who charged a fee for crossing the local river.

When they didn’t pay. He’d cut off their hands…

The people’s hero was a guy called Brabo, who attacked the giant, beat him up and cut HIS hand off, flinging it into the river, much to the joy of the locals, some of whom were still able to applaud.

Ant = hand…

Werp = throw….

Antwerp

Oh, and to continue the dental theme…

How about this sign on the toilet at Professor Marc Herman’s private surgery in Brussels… (Sorry, I had to include the handle and keyhole, otherwise I would not be able to prove this was a door).

And did you know that Belgium is among the still many countries without dental hygienists. (In Europe, you can add France, Turkey and Greece to that list…). What ARE they waiting for?

Smile – Promote Your Dentist

admin Uncategorized Antwerp, Belgium, dental school

It’s a little ‘unbalanced’ of me to mention Henry Schein so often in my blogs, but they ARE rather large and important – and they DO buy my company’s products.

In the Netherlands, Schein holds 2 ‘Open Houses’ per year. In April, it’s the ‘big one’, got to be one of the most successful such shows in the World. In September, last week, they have what they call the ‘Kennisdagen’ – Info Days, where the emphasis is also on lectures, product information, education.

Sorry, no pictures of the expo, but I do have some nice scenes from Amsterdam in the sunshine…

Bikes everywhere, of course. 1 hand, no hands. Mobile in 1 ear, iPod in the other. Brakes? Perhaps. Passengers everywhere, including this dog. I even saw 2-wheelers with a box on the front, carrying four(4) kids, each and everyone of them looking quite content – and unstrapped.

Heineken is one of Holland’s leading brands. By day, this is a very popular tourist attraction. Very…

This dentist (‘Tandarts’) has molar lighting on his balcony – and just look at the gorgeous ceramic figures in this private window…

Back to those bikes…parked everywhere of course, some of them seemingly for the rest of their lives. The houseboats along this particular canal were so attractive; flowers both on and off board. A great place to sit – a dangerous place to park. (They say they have to fish out at least 1 car per week from the Amsterdam canals).

Canals, flowers, bridges and bikes – and more flowers..just look at this wall…

Amsterdam – I’ve seen it packed with everyone on the streets and the water lanes. But when you find a peaceful corner to sit in, it’s special.

admin Uncategorized Amsterdam, Henry Schein, Open House