ChatGPT has become a hot topic of conversation in the healthcare industry as doctors and execs explore ways to implement the artificial intelligence-powered technology into practice.
Artificial intelligence has become popular in the dental field for its ability to simplify tasks and improve patient care.
Rajdeep Randhawa, DDS, is the owner of Innovative Dentistry in Colts Neck, N.J. He recently spoke with Becker's about the role ChatGPT can play in the dental industry.
Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What role do you see AI technology like ChatGPT playing at dental practices? How might this kind of technology affect operations and patient care?
Dr. Rajdeep Randhawa: It is too early to understand, analyze or predict the role [artificial intelligence] technology like ChatGPT will play in the practice of dentistry. Right now there are more questions than answers.
ChatGPT will have to be evaluated by dental technology companies to see if it provides any value addition to the already established practice management systems, patient management systems, patient communication systems and other essential systems, many of which are already using different aspects of AI to run modern dental practices.
ChatGPT can act like "Google on steroids" as it can disseminate a lot of unedited, outdated, very generic textbook information to millions of unsuspecting and uninformed patients, turning them into misinformed patients. It definitely has potential to be both positively or negatively exploited for marketing and in dental practices, but just like any other AI technology, we will have to see how the dental marketing industry uses it, and does it live up to the ethical and moral considerations in the dental profession?
Most of the "textbook information" disseminated by ChatGPT may not be relevant to day-to-day practice of a rapidly evolving dental profession. Patients can easily become addicted to this "AI information pathway" like they are to Google! We already have the "Google Dentist" creating information overload, confusion and anxiety for millions of web browsers. What happens if it gets the power of AI to create a "gigantic information overload" for patients who trust Google or AI more than their own dentists? When there is a conflict between the realistic evidence-based dentist recommendations and the illusive ChatGPT recommendations, who will patients trust more?