To illustrate:

In consumer products, the buggy whip manufacturers did not believe people would travel in those new-fangled noisy machines called automobiles. As everyone knows, buggy whip manufacturers lost their business.

In services, the banks that do not provide banking on their web site, insurance programs and wealth management, will fall by the wayside. They will lose their customers to modernized banks.

In Orthodontics, you know of many examples of the impact of dental technology in your practice. You have also invested in office technology to gain efficiency. You perhaps wonder how you ever coped without the convenience of a fax or photocopier.

You may use e-mail. If so, you probably find it more convenient to keep in touch with suppliers and friends by e-mail. The corollary is that you lose contact with those who don't have e-mail.

In this 'here and now society' most people use their cell phone more than a land line phone. You use one because it is fast, efficient and gets things done at once. So do others.

While these technologies deal with efficiency, there is a newer technology that transcends them all. It is called the World Wide Web, or Web for short. It is not just another tool to increase efficiency, it is a technology that is revolutionizing the very way we think, act, and go about our daily lives.

The difference with the Web is that those who use it (50% of Canadians) think that those who do not are not progressive, just as they think that about people they cannot reach on their cell phone or reach by e-mail.

By 1997, progressive Orthodontists recognized this and now use the Web to maintain and enhance their image, reputation, and referral base. They are not prepared to jeopardize their future position in the dental community by ignoring current technology.

They know that if they do not act now, they will lose their 'progressive' reputation and that, according to the experts, regaining it could take five years or more.