At the Greater New York Trade Show last November, Patterson Dental President Paul Guggenheim made an exciting announcement. Practices looking for apps, resources and tools to enhance their business can now visit one central location online: Patterson's Explore Store, available on www.PattersonDental.com/AppStore.

"With Explore Store, we're pleased to provide a technology resource for dental professionals to aid them in understanding and efficiently applying the information that drives patient care and their practice," Guggenheim said.

Explore Store resources available to dental professionals include CAESY Cloud, an online patient education system, and PattLock, a secure online backup service. Additional applications and resources from Patterson and its industry-leading partners will be continually added to the site.

"Visitors to Explore Store can expect to find an increasing variety of well vetted products for their business, whether they're looking for patient education resources, additional practice management efficiency or patient communication and marketing tools," said Patterson Online Business Development Manager Travis Nelson.

Speaking about the CAESY Cloud and PattLock products currently available on Explore Store, Nelson said, "We launched the Store with two of Patterson's proprietary services, which enhance a practice's ability to educate patients and safeguard their practice's data, including patient records."

Guggenheim, who is championing many of Patterson Dental's recent online marketing strategies – including the August 2011 rollout of the revised PattersonDental.com – stressed the importance of the products that are available currently on Explore Store. "Tools such as CAESY Cloud and PattLock will help dentists enhance the patient experience and protect their practice and patient information. Additional tools focused on other practice needs will continue to be released," he said.

CAESY Cloud online patient education system, which was launched to the industry last fall, is available to any dental practice with an Internet connection. Dental staff can access the system's more than 280 multimedia presentations covering a wide range of dental topics including oral hygiene, restorative procedures and periodontal disease. Updates, like the new orthodontic presentations released last November, are pushed online as soon as they become available. And the information can be accessed in the dental office on computers and on a variety of devices including iPads and iPhones.

PattLock, is an online backup service by Patterson TechnologySM that protects and secures patient and practice information. The software uses an Internet connection to transmit data and store it in a safe location. The data, which is backed up at an additional storage center, is securely encrypted and requires a username and password for account and file access. PattLock users can control scheduling and frequency of backups and verify data backup.

Explore Store and the Patterson resources found on the site are part of a much larger Patterson Technology story. Comprehensive software development, digital technology and call center support capabilities are provided by a staff of nearly 400 at the 100,000-square-foot Patterson Technology Center (PTC) in Effingham, Ill. Plus, training and support are offered at the local level through Patterson Dental's network of 75 branches throughout the U.S.

"The PTC reinforces our commitment to technology and customer support and truly is a differentiator for our customers and, ultimately for their patients," said Scott Anderson, Patterson Companies president and CEO.