Artificial intelligence is becoming more prominent in the dental space, with more dentists and DSOs adding AI to their practices.
Cincinnati-based Cordental Group partnered with Overjet to roll out dental AI to its network of more than 40 affiliated practices last month, continuing that trend.
Gordon Barfield, DDS, senior clinical manager at Overjet, and Steven Jones, co-founder and chief growth officer of Cordental, recently connected with Becker's to share how the rollout will benefit its network of practices.
Note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What is the most important thing for DSOs to know to successfully roll out an AI program?
Dr. Gordon Barfield: I'll come at it from the Overjet perspective and share some of the observations that we've seen. I think, really, they fall into three areas: the training component, the implementation component of the technology within the organization and workflow integration. I think it centers around our ability as leaders in the organization to actually get buy-in from our teams, get everyone on the same page and have them speaking the same language about the technology.
Steven Jones: I would completely agree with Dr. Barfield. From our perspective, we did a lot of diligence upfront, first and foremost. So looking at all the different companies and making sure that we partnered with the right company. And that whole process that he just outlined is exactly what we were looking for, to make sure that we were in sync from the get go. We started really looking at this late last year, we rolled it out to our doctors at the doctor's meeting to get them hyped up about it and excited about it. We did the same with our office managers when we had a meeting and really had a very planned rollout process. That was in conjunction working very closely with the Overjet team and it's been very successful because of that.
Q: How can DSOs and dentists best utilize dental AI programs so they're getting the most out of it?
GB: I kind of bucket that into four areas. One of the biggest benefits of AI technology to a dental clinical organization is the ability to calibrate the team members, as many DSOs have multiple clinicians that might be seeing a group of patients or a patient. This tool allows those clinicians to center around a more common truth. One of the challenges that we have always had in dentistry is standardization. When patients hear the message that's consistent within a clinical setting, they're much more apt to take the advice of the clinicians that are speaking to them, or accept the care. Another thing I think is very large here is the concept of data-driven insights and information that AI can help get out of a practice's database. An AI tool can allow us to make data-driven decisions about what is happening within our practice or our organization. The fourth thing that's important is the concept of payer and provider calibration. There's always been some friction between payers and providers within the dental space, and that leads to some challenges in getting patients the care that we know that they need. Now, with an AI tool, being able to put out a common version of the truth, and sync with what payers are utilizing, when they adjudicate claims, I think we're coming closer to having that link where we're benefiting everyone involved.
SJ: That last concept was actually one of the reasons we chose Overjet over some of the other companies out there, is their relationship with some of the top payers in the country. I come from a medical and pharmacy background, where we've dealt with payers for a number of years, and it's really nice now getting stronger in the font in the dental space. To know that Overjet had already partnered with these top payers to look at claims processing was very important for us, because we feel like that truly is the future of where things are going in this industry.
Q: What kind of impact does AI have on dentistry and dental practices today? What could it evolve into in the future?
GB: AI is already making a huge difference in dental practices today. We're seeing significant lifts in a number of areas clinically, including treatment planning rates, case, acceptance rates and production rates. We know the treatment plan acceptance has been terribly low in dentistry, hovering in about 30% to 50%. For me, as a clinician, I'm not super proud of that. I think we can do better than that. And I think that tools like AI have the ability to help us do that for sure. We've got some data showing significant increases in each of those areas. When AI tools are actually deployed for assisting in the diagnosis, the patient communication and the patient education piece of what happens in the clinic. The important point here I want to make is not the financial impact, although there is one. Rather it's on the number of patients that are accepting and obtaining this needed care that were otherwise not receiving it right now.
SJ: We're already seeing that our case acceptance has gone up. We said from the beginning to our doctors, we will never replace your clinical and diagnostic skills. What we have found is that many clinicians are not good at case presentation; they're not really adept at that. I think the Overjet overlay within the radiographs has really presented an opportunity for them to be better presented to patients, and how the patients better understand it. That's where this really gets exciting for us is that we're not changing how we're diagnosing, we're just changing how we're treating and producing and presenting it to the patients.
Q: What are some broader industry trends that you're keeping tabs on?
GB: As one of the old guys around, I'm fascinated to watch these transformations that we're undergoing in dentistry. I mean, this is an entirely different dental ecosystem than the one I was trained in and grew up in. I love all things data and I'm interested in the shift toward data-driven decision-making within dental practices. It's an amazing thing to watch, as well as things like the integration of some of the emerging technologies. Obviously, artificial intelligence is at the top of that pack for me, 3D imaging, 3D printing and predictive analysis. Also, I'm interested in some concepts that are over on the DSOs side. Consolidation within the dental space is a very big thing and a very powerful thing. For every dentist, I feel, needs to understand exactly what a DSO is, and how dental practice is being shaped by dentists who are organizing, combining their talents and basically in this pursuit, pursuit of better oral health outcomes for this group of patients.
SJ: Consolidation definitely is one of the top factors for me coming from the DSOs perspective, obviously, we're looking to consolidate and grow through that avenue and having been in the world of business development and growth in different industries through the years. Dentistry is a little bit behind some of the other medical specialties, as both pharmacy and medicine consolidated much earlier in their process. Today, you don't find many Mom and Pop pharmacies on the corners anymore, you find Walgreens or CVS, you don't find many physicians working in solo practices anymore. Most of them are part of a healthcare system. And that's exactly where dentistry is moving is with consolidation into DSOs. And it's an exciting time. It's scary, it changes the industry somewhat, but at the same time, it allows us to bring these technologies to the forefront that many individual practice owners could never afford to do on their own.