What's a "Yoon Button?"

In the simplest terms, a Yoon Button is a computer shortcut that allows you to do something in a new way which is easier, simpler, quicker and better than the old way of doing things.  A Yoon Button does not change the result, it just gets you there quicker. For example, if you read the internet discussion below taken from an Internet Dental Forum.  ...if you followed that whole discussion and had a Yoon Button, clicking on it would bring you to this definition.

revised 3/20/05:  Sometimes pictures (or images) are worth even more than a thousand words so here are some that show how Yoon buttons work in the only two digital radiography products that I know have them:

XDR Software (developed by Dr. Doug Yoon; second from the right in the photo below); the Yoon buttons are on the lower left marked "perio" and "caries."

Clicking the "caries" Yoon button enhances the contrast in the gray-scale range of the DEJ ... which is also the gray-scale range of caries! Not only can you see the caries more clearly on the distal of K but you can also see the DEJ much better on 18 and 19. An 8-bit gray-scale is 256 levels of gray. The human eye can discern only about 40 levels of gray. Radiography software allows people to see more of the information which would be "hidden" from our eyes in the initial image (or on a wet film) by expanding the gray range about which we are interested ... in this case the DEJ.  Yoon buttons allow you to do this with one click as opposed to the "do it yourself using photoshop filters and tools" approach taken by many radiography software vendors.

Kodak / Trophy uses Yoon buttons in their software, too. The Yoon buttons are the "first molar icons" at the bottom of the "control panel" window.

Clicking the "DEJ / Caries" Yoon button at the lower right gives the following image:

Notice how much sharper the DEJ is.

(This Internet display just not really do the concept of Yoon buttons justice but it is better than nothing! If you really want to see Yoon buttons in action, come to a seminar!)

As long as we are using Kodak /Trophy as an example, let me show you their really good explanation of radiography software enhancements and why it is so much better than film. (This has nothing to do with Yoon buttons, however.) In the image below, you can see a round disk. That is all you can see. If this were film, you would be done. Holding it up to the brightest viewbox in the world would not provide you with any more information.

BUT, by manipulating the contrast and brightness in the "control panel" on the right of the screen, you can enhance the image to get much more information that was "invisible" before:

It is a penny and that is Lincoln's head. This is absolutely the best illustration of the power and advantage of digital radiography!

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The following was taken from some postings on this subject a few months ago on Internet Dental Forum:

I ALMOST agree with everything Lorne said below. But a couple little exceptions:

1. I think dentists (at this point in our computer evolution) need to consider the "car" (management software) and the "camping trailer" (imaging software) as separate issues. Although the car and trailer may be sold by the same vendor, and they may tell you it is an "integrated solution" (an "RV") this just ain't so. Not yet. And this holds true for BOTH "hard sensors" (direct digital sensors) and "soft sensors" (phosphor plates). I feel very strongly that, whichever sensor type you choose for your office, consider your imaging system as a separate entity from your management system. Get the best management software you can find, then get the best imaging system you can find ... then hook them together. You can call this "trailer hitch" a bridge, integration, a name grabber, whatever you want to call it. If you go to a good, experience DENTAL IT person and say, "I want to buy management software x and imaging software y, can you hitch them up for me?" he/she should be able to not only say "yes" (they always say that!) but he/she should be able to refer you to a client dentist for whom they have already done that "integration."

2. If you think you can get both management and imaging expertise from the same vendor, great. I don't thing that has really happened yet, either. The imaging technology is just changing too fast. Again, not to pick on Dentrix, but they are a good current example of the problems with imaging. Vipersoft / Dentrix Image come from an intra-oral camera / cosmetic imaging background and have an excellent product for that. I would say a superb product for those features. But digital radiography is a whole different ballgame and, so far, they have not done very well (in my humble opinion ... but I do look at looks of radiograph every day!). What makes the Viper/Image cosmetic software so great is not what it does ... we can do that with freeware, open source software, or a $100 "photoshop" type program. What makes it worth the money is the ease and speed with which you or your staff can work your magic with patient images. But, so far, they have taken just the opposite approach with radiography. They have thrown in all the "photoshop" buttons and said to the dentist, "you figure it out! A good, diagnostic image is in there somewhere!" And they are correct, a good image probably is in there somewhere but I don't want to take my time to pry it out because they have not done their homework!

3. Dentists need "Yoon Buttons," named for Doug Yoon, the dentist who created the caries detection algorithms Kodak/PracticeWorks/Trophy now sells. (I wish the vendors would stop "integrating" so we could keep them straight!) Yoon Buttons allow you to simply click on a button to optimize the image to improve your diagnostic return. Are you looking for caries? Hit the "caries" Yoon Button. Are you looking for perio/bone/soft tissue, click the "perio" Yoon Button. The real problem is that many digital radiology vendors do not know what dentists need from xrays. But some are catching on. Doug Yoon's own imaging software (http://www.cybermedinc.com/) obviously does this. So does Trophy. MediaDent and Sirona also have good, quick, easy to use tools. (Nope, Doug doesn't pay me to plug is software. I am just a member of his fan club!) I understand that there is a lot more to digital radiography than just the image quality. But that is the part we dentists have to "see" every day with every single patient. Yes, you have to securely store those images and I commend Dentrix for switching to a better database in Image 4.0. But, in my humble opinion, they have let their "sine qua non" of image quality lag way behind their competition.

4. Last but not least: (yes, I am coming to the end of my manifesto!) while I agree with Lorne that a "bridge" between management and imaging software is not "technically" necessary, I think it is "ergonomically" necessary for the efficient use of computers in a dental office. Way too much trouble and work without one. Just keep in mind, it is very possible, and I think very desirable, to get both the best management software and the best imaging software and easily "trailer hitch" the two of them together with a "bridge."

5. One more last thing: Doug Yoon says, and I sense all of us on this forum agree, it is up to the dentists to tell the vendors what we want, not simply stand by and let them sell us a bunch of stuff that doesn't work or doesn't really suit our needs. One way is to simply ask the sales rep at the next meeting, "Show me your Yoon Buttons." (Maybe Doug should get some buttons made up with that slogan on it!)

Bruce Stephenson, DDS

www.PaperlessDentistry.com

bruce@painlesscom.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Dental Technology Consultants [mailto:drlavine@thedigitaldentist.com]
Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2004 9:20 AM
To: IDF Dentrix Forum
Subject: [dentrix] RE: Fwd: Softdent vs. Dentrix

Ok, a little history of the Scan-X:

When it first came out around summer of 2002, they decided to not

release it with software, because there were many imaging software

companies that were willing to write the drivers that would integrate it

with their programs. First out of the blocks was Sci-Can and Image FX,

and many folks chose to just use their VistaScan drivers in their own

software.

For obvious reasons, Softdent was in no hurry to integrate with Scan-X.

They wanted folks to buy their Trophy (now Kodak) sensors and DiCom

software, not Scan-X. It was my understanding that Softdent had created

a direct bridge to Scan-X with their Softchart program, but if Air

Techniques is saying no, then this makes sense. The choice of which

software to use with Scan-X is often up to the individual sales reps and

any special marketing deals they may have going on. Your local person

probably has either familiarity with Tigerview or has some relationship

with them to recommend their product. There are many image programs that

work fine with Softdent and Scan-X, including the ones I mentioned

previously. The reason that many people use a third party program is

that the ones that are sold by the PMS companies are often grossly

overpriced. Eaglesoft Advanced Imaging will run $7000 for all the bells

and whistles; Dentrix Image is $8495 for the complete package of

modules. A program like Apteryx XVa3 or Tigerview will cost under $2500

for the same features.

As Bruce indicated, there really is no such thing as integration between

a practice management software and a phosphor plate system...there has

to be an image software program in the mix. Some give you the impression

that it's integrated, but it really isn't. For example, Dentrix uses

Image 4.0, which is really just the old Vipersoft program with a new

coat of paint. If you click on the thumbnail image in the Dentrix chart,

it launches the Image program, thus proving that they are indeed

separate programs. Also, if you look in the hard drive, you'll see that

the images are in a separate folder, and they use a proprietary storage

format (I think it's a .vns file, which is the Vipersoft format). I'm

not trying to pick on Dentrix...Eaglesoft uses their own imaging

software (Advanced Imaging), and Softdent uses the Trophy software to

capture the Kodak images.

So, bottom line is that unless Softdent directly integrates with Scan-X

(which it probably does not), then you will need an image program that

is compatible with Scan-X. Keep in mind that the bridge is really not a

requirement. All it does is bring the patient name over from the

practice management software. If you or your staff don't mind typing out

a new patient's name into the image software, then the bridge really

isn't something that you need. Most offices prefer it, but it definitely

isn't mandatory.

As far as image quality goes, that's more of a tough call. If you take

the Scan-X images at normal resolution, then image quality is not as

good as most sensors. However, it depends on how you view the images. If

you look at a full mouth series of x-rays on the screen at once, you

won't be able to see much difference between a series taken with

phosphor plates vs. sensors. However, if you take a single PA and expand

it so that it takes up, say, 1/3 of the screen, the phosphor plate image

will begin to pixelate, whereas the sensor will not. This won't happen

if you take the phosphor plate image at higher resolution, but most

people don't do this because it takes a very long time for the plate to

be scanned.

What I was suggesting earlier is that the image that you'll see with

Dentrix Image and Scan-X is not especially good. Dentrix is well aware

of this fact...it has something to do with the filters that are applied.

Image 4.0, besides moving to an SQL database, was supposed to fix this

problem; it did not. The next release of Image is supposed to again fix

the problem; I'll withhold judgment until I see it.

Hope this helps.

Lorne

Lorne Lavine, DMD, A+, Network+

Dental Technology Consultants

4540 Tobias Avenue

Sherman Oaks, CA 91304

DrLavine@TheDigitalDentist.com

www.thedigitaldentist.com

-----Original Message-----

From: kalniz [mailto:kalniz@buckeye-express.com]

Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2004 4:57 AM

To: Dental Technology Consultants

Subject: Re: [dentrix] RE: Fwd: Softdent vs. Dentrix

I am confused. We were told by the Scan-X people that we would need a

bridge to their product if we used the Softdent program we now have and

would need Tiger software as well. Would we still  need Tiger  software

if

we switched to Dentrix? Also, are you saying that the phosphor plate

technology is "not there" as of yet and we would not be happy? Thanks

for

your help Lorne.

Tom

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