I’m on record as an unwavering advocate for more efficient dental delivery, for technological change, for hardware solutions to many of dentistry’s challenges. I’ve also championed the computer revolution in dentistry and the multiple benefits the profession stands to reap in its technological future.

But a growing feeling of uneasiness brought about by the seemingly unending number of electronic discoveries competes with my support of this technological future. I’m wary that as many of our daily tasks are replaced by electronic substitutes, the personal will become the impersonal, nonverbal communication will become extinct, and human touch will become low-level electronic buzz.

Take telephones, for example. I’d guess 60 percent of my phone calls are now answered by machines. I can buy a car, lock in a mortgage, order a prescription or transfer my bank balance from one account to another without ever speaking to another person. I now spend inordinate amounts of time punching the telephone buttons in response to a recorded menu. Make an entering mistake and you start all over again.

Consider computers. You can log on to one or more Internet e-commerce sites and buy an international airline ticket, seats at a New York City theater or the latest best-selling book without ever hearing a human voice. That unseen face somehow monitors my every entry, apparently building a constant record of my buying habits, personal banking and reading interests.

On a daily basis, computers, through their analyst programmers, control my options, channel my behavior, dictate my choices—nudging me further and further away from the people with whom I used to interact personally.

Sometimes you reach the point where you just want to type in "E-NOUGH."

This depersonalization is at dentistry’s doorstep. October’s ADA Technology Day speakers inspired their listeners to conjure up a dental office of the future. Envisioned was a beautifully appointed office with no receptionist. Instead, a computer unit registers patients via "card swipe."

Electronically stored voices inform patients of their projected waiting time. Patients are entertained with customized dental health education programming tailored to their individual health profile. Behind the terminal is an incredibly fast, efficient system managing all medical, dental and financial information—including treatment planning.

Dentists draped in gowns, hidden behind masks, glasses and gloves, dictate clinical observations into a voice-recognition system and document their observations with minute video cameras. Those same cameras verify patient consent and document clinical procedures to ensure against potential malpractice suits. One more swipe of a credit or debit card and patients can be on their way.

Efficient? You bet. Personal? Hardly.

The dental profession can hardly tolerate further depersonalization of the office visit. For almost a decade, dentists have been required to cover themselves with gowns, gloves, masks and eyeshields in response to stringent federal infection control regulations.

While this attire may assure patients that their visit will be a safe one, it essentially destroys the dentist’s ability to communicate in a nonverbal manner. Patients no longer are able to perceive the dentist’s facial mannerisms. Hidden behind the mask and eyewear are smiles that once exuded warmth, caring, interest and even safety.

Modern dental practice always has relied on a strong personal relationship between practitioner and patient. Disrupting that relationship can result in less satisfying experiences for dentists and patients. Avoiding further technological changes that might adversely affect the personal relationship between dentist and patient should rank high on each dentist’s list of priorities. Rather, dental offices need to accentuate strategies that enhance the human touch.

For a start, just consider having a live voice answer the office phone during all of the office hours. There is nothing more disconcerting than trying to share a dental problem with an answering machine that plays, "We are busy right now, but if you leave your name and number we will get back to you as soon as we can," or "Our office hours are from 8 to 12 and 1:30 to 5. Please leave a voice message, and we will get back to you."

Those messages may be OK for a library or an auto-repair shop but not for a medical or dental office. Can you imagine calling a hospital emergency room phone that says "We are busy at the present time; please leave a voice message at the beep."

For all practical purposes, dental practices are miniambulatory outpatient dental hospitals. Voice recordings just aren’t acceptable during office hours.

A relatively inexpensive way to put the personal touch back into the office is to get rid of your voice-messaging system during lunch and breaks. Purchase a cellular phone for staff use. Assign a different staff member to phone duty each day. During the times the office was previously closed for lunch or whatever, a staff member would be available to answer the phone and respond to patient needs. She or he need not be in the office to carry out this task. Simple and inexpensive! Plus, no more of the "press 1" stuff if you wish to leave a message.

The personal touch. It’s critical. Keep it! Restore it! Find new ways to offer it!