At a recent event, Practice Plan’s Les Jones spoke to Hannah Burrow, CEO of dental note-taking software company Kiroku, and asked her to share her thoughts on the future of AI in dentistry.
Les: How does AI fit into the current dental landscape, Hannah?
Hannah: There are quite a few examples of AI already being used in dentistry and one of them is well established. Think of Invisalign, for example, and iTero scanners. All intraoral scanners employ AI to be able to do their job effectively. It probably doesn’t occur to people immediately when they’re using a scanner that it’s AI, as it just works for them.
There are also more recent examples of AI being used. Kiroku is one, for dental note-taking, but there are also others such as Pearl which can help with the diagnosis of radiographs. There’s also DentalMonitoring, which uses computer vision to help analyse the progress of orthodontic cases. So, there are quite a few examples already of AI being used in dentistry. However, we are very much in its early stages of use. I think all these things will progress at a rate of knots.
Les: Dentistry is a very personal service. How would AI fit in with that type of industry?
Hannah: I think a fear people have about AI is that it might remove jobs. But dentistry as a career puts you in a protected position because it’s so human. Understanding humans, trying to manage their pain, trying to effect behaviour change; that isn’t something repetitive. It can’t be automated easily.
I think there are elements of dentistry that are repetitive and they’re the things I believe will get picked off with different AI use cases. But the core value that you provide as a dentist can’t be replaced with AI, in my opinion. Not even in the future.
Les: And nor would we want it to be. So, we can see AI coming in and clearly, it’s making an impact. What about the future of AI?
Hannah: I can only speak for Kiroku. I know that currently, we are helping streamline the record keeping process. But our vision is to get to a point where there’s no need to interact with anything. You just naturally have a conversation with the patient, and everything is automatically generated for you, making that completely actionable.
Then it’s about what needs to be done with that information. Is a referral needed? Does an appointment need to be booked? Can we streamline all those repetitive tasks?
That’s where I see AI developing, at least in dentistry. Then I think more broadly, up until now, all the different suppliers have been very focused on their own areas. As those different suppliers become integrated, you’ll get a really streamlined experience. Because if the Pearls of this world can talk to Kiroku, and then be able to talk to a system for ordering new materials, all these things can be linked, and it becomes something that affects everyone in the practice seamlessly. That could be very exciting.
Les: Agreed. For anyone thinking about investing in AI through the companies they’re dealing with, the ultimate question is ‘will it actually deliver an impact for my practice?’ Is there evidence that by utilising AI you can make your practice more profitable?
Hannah: If you look at all the examples of AI in dentistry, they’re achieving time efficiency gains, or improved interaction with patients by trying to remove something from your workflow. It might be better treatment conversion, or reduced chair time, which is a different form of efficiency. There’s evidence that of all the different AI examples, they are achieving that in different ways.
For time efficiency that might be measurable, then you’re reducing the amount of time spent on this repetitive task, therefore you’re improving the number of patients you can see. But it might just be you’re going home on time. It could be that you enjoy your day more and you’re not burnt out.
So, these things could be measured in many ways. It could be you’re seeing more patients per day, or you have fewer employees leaving the practice because your clinicians aren’t burnt out. If you think about all the applications of AI now, they really do just remove some of the repetitive tasks or shorten the time scale and effort involved, and therefore hopefully reduce the stress associated with being a dentist.
Les: I think there’s huge value in that. We briefly touched earlier on the human side of things, and no doubt there’s a variety of opinions as to what the impact will be on the positions within a dental practice. Some people might be looking over their shoulder thinking, ‘does this technology mean I’ll be out of a job?’ How worried should they be?
Hannah: I think for everyone who is patient-facing, then they can’t be replaced with AI any time soon, as what they do is so human. How can anyone but a human do that?
What it will do is reduce the less enjoyable parts of the dental team’s work. So as a nurse, you might have the burden of helping your clinician with notes. Removing that is not going to threaten your job because there are a million other things you could be doing with your time, things that only you can do. It just removes some of the drudgery from your day.
So, I genuinely think that dentistry is a protected profession. It’s just the repetitive and predictable things that are going to be removed from people’s workflow rather than their jobs.
Les: Fascinating prospects, Hannah. Thank you.
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