Dental AI company Overjet recently received more than $53 million in funding, the largest investment in dental AI to date, and launched a pediatric AI program.
Wardah Inam, PhD, Overjet's co-founder and CEO, connected with Becker's to discuss plans for the additional funding, the impact of adding another FDA-cleared program for both patients and dentists, and the company's longer-term goals.
Note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: How will the recent investment round help Overjet grow and expand? Are there any specific plans on how to use the extra funding?
Dr. Wardah Inam: The goal for the fundraising was to build out more products to serve the customers that we have. We've been lucky that our customers like Overjet and they love utilizing Overjet and are seeing a lot of value. Now we're building our new products especially in the intersection of the payers and providers that we serve so that we can help improve care that is provided and then streamline operations. We automate administrative work, we augment clinical decision-making, and there's a lot more for us to build for our customers to help them operate more effectively.
Q: What is the impact of Overjet for Kids?
WI: Pediatric practices are unique in that they are very busy; there are a lot of patients that go to pediatric practices. The second thing unique about them is that their patients are young and they cannot make determination on care themselves, which means that parents are also involved in the decisions. Communication becomes an even bigger opportunity for dentists to help communicate much more effectively to the patient. Children's teeth are different from adult teeth, so with this new FDA-cleared technology that we introduced to the market, we can serve the population that has mixed dentitions, or where both primary and adult teeth are present. With the technology, dentists are able to highlight areas of concern, including tooth decay, such that not only it can be found, but it can be treated effectively. If you find cavities sooner, you can treat them with preventive treatment rather than drilling those teeth, and so that's the opportunity. That's what Overjet can do. We can help identify decay sooner and communicate with the patients much more effectively so that the parents of the patients can see what challenges their children are facing in terms of their oral health.
Q: What are a few of the company's long-term goals?
WI: Our main goal is to improve patient outcomes, and that's where we're focused. We believe that it can be done with three main pillars. No. 1 is reducing administrative overhead such that more money goes towards patient care, which is where the administrative automation is coming in from. Second is helping dentists make a much more comprehensive and accurate diagnosis such that they are improving care. Lastly is getting patients to have access to and acceptance of the care that is being provided so they can get the treatments. We believe that if the three are true, then we are going to have better patient outcomes. In order to achieve better patient outcomes, we also believe that oral health is not siloed and you have to look at overall health holistically. There are many dental diseases that are linked to medical diseases, so looking at starting to connect the two in the future is a goal of ours. Medical-dental integration is something that we will be focused on in the long term and looking at the complete picture of each patient and how we can improve their overall health.