Spilling the Teath: How AI Is Revolutionizing Dental Diagnosis
In this month’s episode of Spilling the Teath, Dr. Ryan Hungate, DDS, MS, Chief Clinical Officer at Henry Schein One, spoke with Florian Hillen, CEO and founder of VideaHealth, about how AI is revolutionizing the dental industry. Today, we’re sharing Hillen’s top reasons for why practices need to incorporate AI as part of their diagnosis process.
“I'm not saying that you cannot practice great dentistry without AI. You absolutely can, and you've done it for the last however many years. That said, I think there are a lot of challenges which have been previously unaddressed, and we can help with. A dentist clinician is incredibly busy. They have several operatories. And often the hygienist already looks with the patient over the radiographs, and then the dentist comes in and has very little time to make an entire treatment plan recommendation, looking at 18 different x-rays, ideally goes through all of them singly and so on. Time is an issue, right?
“Then number two is because there’s so little time, it definitely can happen that a small incipient lesion is missed, which maybe is not so relevant. But the next time the patient comes, the patient is asking, ‘Why didn't you inform me of that already last time?’ Which then deteriorates trust, right?
“And then one of the things we always see as a challenge, and, honestly, I have experienced this myself as a patient, is it's one thing to show on a gray radiograph. I spent seven years in medical school and have been in dentistry for over six years, and even I start arguing with my dentist. These conversations take time and sometimes they lead to the patient waiting, not doing anything, and you’re not converting them to treatment. This is not good for the clinician, and it's also not good for the patient because they might lose this tooth. They might have to incur more costs.
“Those are some of the challenges you have currently without AI. And I think if you implement Videa AI into your practice, first the hygienist can already see the bone, can use that to communicate any hygiene needs. Secondly, the dentist sees an FMX and can quickly prioritize the spots he needs to check and determine what the diagnosis and treatment plan is. This is an assisting tool. The dentist always has to full control of a diagnosis and treatment plan.
“The most powerful thing is that there’s a patient view in Videa AI where it easily visualizes the different parts of the tooth, enamel dental pulp, the decay, the bone loss, and the cupolas, and the dentist can then use it to easily show it to the patient. These visualizations help increase trust and urgency to get it done. Patients are getting the right treatment at the right time – that means fewer treatment opportunities are missed, and patients are accepting treatment more often.”
Check out the full discussion between Dr. Hungate and Hillen to learn more about how AI is advancing the industry – including the remarkable, real-life results practices have seen using VideaHealth’s AI solutions.