AI Is Here: The New Standard of Care in Dentistry

Transcript performed by A.I. Please excuse the typos.
00:00
Imagine being able to catch all dental problems when they’re small, before they become bigger and more expensive and more complicated. My favorite myth actually is that it’s going to replace dentists. in fact, that is absolutely not true. I really think of AI technology and Overjet’s technology as an assistive technology. Two thirds of dental care that’s recommended to patients based on their clinical findings doesn’t get delivered, doesn’t get completed.

00:30
This is Dental All-Stars, where we bring you the best in dentistry on marketing, management and training.

00:40
Welcome to Dental All-Stars. I’m Eric Vickery, president of coaching at All-Star Dental Academy. I’m so excited to interview our guest today, Dr. Terri Dolan. She’s the chief dental officer at Overjet. I know you guys have all heard of Overjet. It’s an incredible company out there in the AI world. And there she leads the clinical team at optimizing AI-driven dental imaging, which is ensuring high quality performance, uh FDA clearance support, and customer training. A passionate advocate for healthy

01:09
Dr. Dolan was previously the Dean and Chief Academic Officer at the University of Florida College of Dentistry and later served as Chief Clinical Officer at Dent Supply Serona. She’s co-authored key publications in incorporating AI into dental education and she frequently lectures at dental schools, conferences, and webinars. So welcome Dr. Terri Dolan. Thank you for being here. I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you, Eric. Great to be here. I’ve been waiting for this one.

01:39
I’ve been waiting for this. I mean, we talk about OverJet all the time with our clients. So I’m very excited to pick your brain on this. We’ve got some questions laid out for you and we’re gonna jump right in. And hopefully at end of this, those that are listening are just thinking, that’s the question I wanted to ask. We’ll just get some answers, some clarity. right. So AI, I think in the last two years, I’ve heard clients go from, no, never want that to…

02:06
hey, wow, this is incredible. I can’t believe how much this is helping. And so I think it’s cracking into dentistry at 100 miles an hour right now and people are grabbing it and getting it wherever they can and it’s helping their practices a ton. So knowing that, what do you think are, I guess the myths or maybe misunderstandings about AI and dentistry right now?

02:30
Yeah, thank you, Eric. I mean, it’s such an exciting field and there’s so much opportunity with AI and its applications in healthcare in general and dentistry. But to your point, there are a ton of myths and misunderstandings about AI and how it’s used and potential pitfalls. So my favorite myth actually is that it’s going to replace dentists. And in fact, that is absolutely not true. I really think of AI technology and Overjet’s technology as an assistive technology.

02:58
It helps us do what we do best. ah It uh automates some things that we don’t need to do uh day in, day out, ah but it gives us time back so that we can actually focus on patients, the communication with patients, but it would never replace kind of the skills, the values, the uh critical thinking that comes together as a dental professional as we work every day with our patients.

03:26
So it does not replace dentists, it augments, assists, helps us do our jobs better. Yeah. Yeah. So true. So true. And if you look at it in so many aspects outside of dentistry, you’re seeing the same sort of myth question and clarification that’s happening right now. Yeah. That’s a great point. Where are we already using AI in our world right now when it comes to just in practices, education, all of it?

03:54
Yeah, so it’s actually used a lot in dental care. I mean, the one I’ll start talking about first is what we call computer vision. And this was some of the first applications of AI and healthcare in general, supporting radiologists or in dentistry, helping us better, more accurately and consistently interpret dental radiographs. And so what we do is we train the artificial intelligence, the machine learning.

04:19
to do image recognition. And so we train it to accurately and consistently identify dental caries, alveolar bone levels, calculus, periapical radioleucency. So these common findings that when we’re busy in our practice and we have a lot going on, it’s easy to overlook some of these things. uh And so it’s really being, sitting on our shoulder, helping us uh be very precise, consistent, accurate.

04:47
ah in identifying those common clinical conditions. And so I’d say computer vision was kind of the first application in dentistry, but to your point, oh it’s extended to other important applications. I’d say my favorite actually is facilitating patient education. You when we have colorized clinical findings on a black and white X-ray, they really pop out to a patient and they can understand, oh, that’s what you mean by.

05:15
They don’t even understand the word dental caries, right? So, oh, that’s a cavity, that’s a dental caries. Oh, that’s what periodontal disease looks like. Oh, what happened to my bone? Why is that colored red? That doesn’t sound good. It really helps uh individuals understand their clinical conditions and makes them more likely to trust the clinicians and actually move on to accept care.

05:41
that we know is needed, but patients don’t always understand why, and this facilitates that whole case acceptance process. Yeah, we’re all about case acceptance. that we hang our hat on verbal skills systems, whether it’s on the phone or in the chair when it comes to case acceptance. And Overjet has been a huge ally in helping us accomplish that from, you know, we went from, you know, the Canon cameras to intro cameras to

06:10
No, tarot scans to now. Now we’re, instead of the patient looking at this X-ray on the screen and going, why are my toes up there? You know, they’re, and you’re pointing out a shadow. They’re, they’re going, oh, I see what you’re talking about there. And it’s a second opinion. The instant you click that button and is incredible and getting doctors to calibrate their level of diagnosis to multiple doctors and practices and patients seeing it. Just the benefits seem to be incredible from a client standpoint.

06:40
with the way I see it. And we see cases go up. oh and I read a recent statistic that two thirds of dental care that’s recommended to patients based on their clinical findings doesn’t get delivered, doesn’t get completed. And as a public health dentist and someone who cares about our patients, we want them to get the care that they need. And we know it’s so important for their oral health and their overall health and well-being.

07:06
And so, you we talk about case acceptance, sure that drives, you know, the practice success, but it really is important to improving the health of that patient. And so if we can use technology and tools to colorize and make clinical findings more understandable to patients, I think that’s a great benefit to our patients. I think that KPI is worth repeating. So what you’re really saying is 34 % of what we recommend is getting scheduled.

07:33
Yeah, which is, I mean, that was shocking to me and disappointing because we know that, you know, think about periodontal disease, how important that is, that inflammatory process can influence so much of our overall health and wellbeing and by not getting that treatment that patients need, it really disadvantages them, not just from an oral health perspective, but from an overall health perspective.

07:59
Yeah, they don’t, they can’t see it and they can’t feel it. Therefore it’s not a problem. say all the time, no pain, no problem, no pay in the patient’s perspective. And what, what Overjet’s doing is showing the patient where that problem is. Now you’re alluding to periodontal uh imagery and I love the way Overjet takes the, pocket depths. It goes green one, was it one to three millimeters is green and then four millimeters yellow and over four it’s red. And it literally measures the pocket depth on the imaging for the patient to go.

08:27
Now I see what you’re talking about. And now they’re buying into the condition. Now they’re more likely to get out of just being 34 % of their dentistry accepted and moving up. Have you seen a KPI on once a practice is using overjet case acceptance wise, what their 34 % case acceptance rate goes to? Have we seen that yet? Do we have enough data to-? mean, we’re doing those studies now, but we know that it definitely improves case acceptance.

08:54
And, you know, it varies by practice, but I think, uh, you know, it just makes common sense. If he is a patient I can see and understand, uh, I’m more likely to trust and, and go along and accept that care. I’ll speak from my own personal experience. We, we installed this in a practice in Southern California. And, uh, when I say we, meaning I sent them over to you guys, you guys put it in there. We had a two locations. It was a senior doctor and associate. Well, he can’t be in the other location. And I say always.

09:23
mentoring that associate doctor on treatment planning and her, her, I won’t do dollars, but her case acceptance, well, her dentistry, was providing the patients in just the first month went up 25%. 25 % improvement. And we knew something was off. was just too low. We’re not sure if it was the diagnosis that was happening or the delivery of the communication of the diagnosis. Both were solved.

09:53
because it was almost like Overjet was helping hold her to a standard that was calibrated to the level of what the senior doctor wanted. It was incredible, and it was instant, first month on. It was incredible. Well, and I think about dental students who are just learning how to communicate with patients or maybe a new associate or someone that’s recently graduated. Think about how this makes it so much easier to explain conditions and build that relationship and trust with a patient.

10:21
So I think the results vary a little bit based on the expertise and the experience of the clinician and the practice environment. But to me, it just makes great sense that this is a real practice builder and a real trust builder between the patient and the clinicians. You’re speaking our language in words, trust, relationship, conditions. If you’re an All-Star client, you know all those words are very powerful in our verbal skill and our communication with our patients.

10:50
I love that you’re echoing that right now. So what do you think those listening dentists that are listening right now or practitioners that people at work in Dell office that are listening right now, what do you think they need to know to evaluate their situation with what AI tools are out there and look at an AI tool and go, okay, what does that do for me? What do you think? How do we get clarity in this? Cause there’s a lot of stuff out there. Yeah. So that’s a great question. And, um,

11:18
Not all technology is created equal. You know, I’m very proud of our Overjet team because it was really uh built with a strong clinical foundation. Our CEO, Wardi Inam, was really went into this work trying to solve clinical problems. She recognized through personal experience that there’s some challenges with accuracy and consistency in dental diagnosis. And so from day one engaged a clinical team, built a really strong multi

11:45
a collaborative team of engineers and software oh engineers and clinicians to solve this problem. so, first and foremost, not all technology is created equal. The other thing people may not know is that this technology, this software is actually considered a medical device. And it has to go through very stringent clinical evaluation and testing that gets presented to the FDA in order to get clinical. uh

12:14
clearance for our ability to sell and market the product. And so I would say as an informed clinical consumer, pay attention to the FDA clearances that the various software has for the clinical products. Now, that’s not true for all of the AI efficiency-driven products, but for the clinical products that are really assisting in the identification and diagnosis of caries, for example, or any clinical condition, look for that FDA clearance. um

12:45
uh I think looking for, um you know, talking with customers, you know, colleagues who are using the technology to really understand how it’s used and applied in their dental practices. So I think there’s a becoming knowledgeable about AI and its various applications in dentistry. Do your reading, do your homework. I think that that’s really important. I think in doing that myself, I know that Overjet

13:13
based on its history and the way we’ve invested in the development of the technology, really focused on solving problems, whether they’re efficiency problems, trusted communication problems, or identification of common clinical findings. I feel very comfortable in the work that we’re doing that bring tools to the marketplace that are really helping people do their work better.

13:38
triggered something in my mind talking about this. love that Overjet sets itself apart in this world. It is an incredible product. One of the things I love about it is the morning huddle module. And this is where dentists, hygienists specifically, and that dentists, think in the patient win in the end of this, but the morning huddle module where it lays out what’s coming in that day from a clinical standpoint and diagnosis standpoint.

14:08
unfinished tree of plants standpoint. And when you talk about patient care, can you speak at all about what that does for practice, what you’re seeing transition there? Cause I think there’s an awareness of going, oh oh, wow, we weren’t paying attention to this. We were going to miss that. How is Overjet helping patient care in that specific module? Yeah, I love the morning huddle feature. I love the daily patients page. What it does is aggregate a lot of information in a way that’s easy to review.

14:36
that flags things that could potentially be missed, highlights clinical findings on x-rays to say, oh, be sure, look, there’s maybe an early enamel lesion on tooth number 14, uh flags it on that x-ray so you can, with one click of the button, go to that x-ray with and without the AI findings. um And it also enables communication across all the team members as you prepare for your day, right, to say, here’s who’s coming in, here’s

15:06
Here’s maybe they’re due for new radiographs. Maybe they haven’t had a period charting in a while. Maybe there’s a finding that we’ve been monitoring and we need to look at again. And then let’s quickly look at those x-rays and prepare for the day so that we don’t miss anything, that we’re providing everyone that detailed attention to uh their patient-specific needs. And it organizes all that data in a way that’s so easy for the user.

15:34
And whether that’s the hygienist, the assistant, the dentist, they’re all prepped in the same way so that they’re ready to very efficiently, effectively take care of that group of patients coming in. Yeah. If you’re listening to this and you don’t like chart prep, you don’t have, I wouldn’t say you don’t like it. You don’t have time for chart prep as a hygienist. Think about this. It’s assisting you in your chart prep. Even point, can I say this Dr. John? Even pointing out, see if I’m right here, even pointing out.

16:03
things that we haven’t diagnosed yet that it wants you to check. Is that correct? Absolutely. Yeah. So it reflects back on prior radiographs, prior notes, but also, hey, here, there was a new set of radiographs taken. Here’s some things you might want to focus on in your radiographic review and to review them with the patient. Yeah. And then if you’re a hygienist and you’ve been doing your periotarding and you’ve got this long standing patient coming through and it’s looking at the x-rays with you on the periotarding,

16:32
You now have someone next to you helping you with diagnosis, helping you get the patient understand the condition. So you don’t have a patient saying, well, I’ve been coming to you every six months. Why do I have gum disease? It’s, it’s showing the patient, the pocket depths that you’ve been talking about. It’s like having a second opinion right there with you and AI. you have a, and so that brings me to this. Do you have a specific verbiage that you recommend hygienist doctors use to introduce the AI product to the patient? So they’re like.

17:01
What is this thing that you’re clicking and pushing on and touching? Like, is this something you’ve just told it to do? Is there a way to build the credibility of Overjet to the patient on what it is? Or is there things to not say? Have ever thought about that? Yeah. I actually, that’s a really good question. Um, I would say, you know, being knowledgeable and comfortable with the technology, explaining that it’s not a replacement for me as the dentist or the dental team members.

17:28
It’s really here to help me to make sure that I’m providing the best care for you. It doesn’t dictate what I do. It helps me do my job better. And I think then if there’s any question, just reassuring that, you know, that it’s FDA clear, that it’s based on research using millions of radiographs. So it really uh takes advantage of that kind of collective understanding of dental disease and disease progression and how it looks on an x-ray. And it just, uh

17:59
You know, I’m investing in this technology because I’m trying to provide for you the best possible care. Uh, and it really empowers me to do that every day. Amazing. I love that. That’s so good. love the FDA approved the millions of X-ray reviews. It’s an assistant to me. It’s like having a second opinion in our office right here with you. So you can clearly see what we’re talking about. We know you can’t read X-rays. Uh, you’re not in the dental field. We want you to understand what we’re seeing. And this is a, clarifying tool for you.

18:28
I love the daily module where it’s showing everything and laying everything out. We’re not missing anything. It’s helping with chart prep. It’s showing the patient imagery, both x-rays and in peri-o pocket depth. So good. What do you, where’s all this going when it comes to AI patient care? What’s the future here? Yeah. So I think it’s, it’s just fascinating. I mean, if you can dream it, you can do it almost with today’s technology, right? So as I mentioned, we started with this computer vision and colorizing dental x-rays and

18:57
aggregating data, you know, there’s a way to do patient reports about what’s going on in your practice, which I think is very helpful. I know that a pain point for the dental office in general is submission of uh insurance claims. And so we’re working on ways to automate that, whether that’s insurance verification, eligibility, working on the back end to connect payers and providers in a way that takes away all of that

19:26
wasted time and friction and disappointment um so that we’re communicating the accurate information to the payer, to the insurance company, so that that facilitates uh payment in a much more efficient, timely way, which is a win, not just for the practice, but for the patient. think we’re going to continue to see enhanced diagnostic precision and speed.

19:54
not just on 2D radiographs, but for clinicians listening, moving into 3D radiographs as well, CBCTs, being able to identify pathologies in that methodology, which is very important to identify both uh normal anatomy, but also potential pathologies. Think about all the clinical workflows that are digitally enabled that can use AI. uh

20:22
So whether that’s uh implant planning, for example, uh airway management, it really enables a lot of uh those procedures that are tech enabled and are needed by patients. So I see, I’d love as a preventive oriented dentist, more predictive and preventive care recommendations.

20:47
uh Imagine being able to catch all dental problems when they’re small, before they become bigger and more expensive and more complicated. So technology that enables that predictive and preventive approach to healthcare that’s very personalized. um feel like all of these are right on the horizon. I also think advanced patient communication and education tools that are tied.

21:14
to what we know about patients and that interaction that happens at the dental chair. Imagine patients being able to bring that home with them so that they can reflect on it in a less stressful environment maybe. And again, that would help with case acceptance with accepting and completing care. So that’s kind of a quick list of things, you can… I was scribing so that notes can be taken automatically.

21:43
I mean, these sound a little on the futuristic side, but I would say that, um, you know, Overjet is actively working on many of these. uh and, and, and we’re talking like in the matter of months, not in like 10 years from now. It’s happening. So it’s happening. It’s happening today. Yeah. Amazing. Amazing technology. And all of that, I think helps us focus on patient care more. is not replacing patient care. It’s enhancing our ability to focus on the patient. Imagine not.

22:12
not being distracted with what you have to do over here because something else is doing that for you, whether it’s notes or imaging, pulling it up or following up with the patient or I mean, the CVCT type stuff, 3D imaging stuff, that’s incredible. I mean, that opens up a whole nother opportunity for patients to understand. I just know from a patient standpoint, you’re looking at the image, this person’s talking about it, and they’ll see here and you’re going, nope, I don’t see here in your mind, but you’re going, yeah, uh-huh.

22:37
This is what affects us. This is what affects our case acceptance. So I’m so glad that Overjet is out there to help us and, really, gosh, just, I think I don’t want the word explode is not the right word, but just, just, it’s, it’s just taking case acceptance to the next level. It’s again, it’s just like intro photos when those came out and how those helped and as well and scanning and all digital scans, all of it is just that next level. If you don’t have this in your practice.

23:04
highly, highly considerate because it is a difference maker when it comes to getting patients to move on things instead of waiting for a toothache, waiting for a tooth to break, waiting for gum disease to cause tooth loss. We can focus on prevention with these tools and I think it does help the patient get the buy-in for sure. Wow, this is, I’m super impressed with this product. I love it in the offices we have it working in. If you’re a client of All-Star Dental Academy, to this right now, talk to your coach about getting

23:33
connected with OverJet. And Dr. Dolan, what else would you like to share with us today? We’ve covered a lot of ground. Is there anything else you feel like, hey, we need to talk about, if someone’s listening on this is probably something they’re thinking about, this is what they need to know. What else is there? Well, Eric, well, first, thank you for having me on the program. And you can tell that I’m incredibly enthusiastic about the opportunity to work at OverJet and the potential and the current, its ability today

24:02
to make a difference uh in the way we deliver care to patients and improving patient health and outcomes. So I would say don’t think about this technology as something in the future. It’s standard of care today. I encourage all our clinicians and listeners and office managers to really invest your time and energy to learn about the technology and how it can really improve your day-to-day work and how it’s gonna help your patients.

24:30
I’d say now is the time to learn and focus on adopting and how it’s going to benefit your practices. Yeah. It has been out for a while. And if you’re just hearing about this, or you’ve been waiting to figure out what product do I want to add to my practice, this is the product. is absolutely amazing. And the practices we’re using it with, we’re loving it. It’s such a great tandem with what we teach. So we’re very grateful for Overjet and for you, Dr. Dolan.

24:59
Thank you for joining us. We appreciate you giving us your time and hopefully answering everyone’s questions about this. And if you’re out there listening and you’re thinking, oh, I want help with case acceptance. I want to know where to go. Just email us. Just shoot us an email. We’ll even just set up a time and talk with you. Just send an email to Heather at allstardentalacademy.com. Heather at allstardentalacademy.com. And again, thank you so much for listeners, for joining us and taking the time to really invest in yourself.

25:27
We really know that you want to grow when you’re here and when you’re getting better, your patients are getting healthier. So until next time, go out there and be an All-Star.

25:41
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Dental All-Stars. Visit us online at AllStarDentalAcademy.com.