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Hello everyone. I am Maria
Mohammed with Becker's Healthcare.

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Thank you so much for joining
us on today's podcast.

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We are absolutely thrilled
to be joined by Dr.

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McKenzie Woodard from
Commonwealth Dentistry. Doctor,

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thank you so much for being
here today. How are you?

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I'm great. Thank you
so much for having me.

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Of course. Again, so happy
to have you on today. Um,

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today we'll discuss all things
within detect ai. To get us started,

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would you mind please introducing yourself
and sharing a bit about your role?

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Sure, absolutely. Um, as you
said, my name's Mackenzie Woodard.

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I'm a general dentist in Central Virginia
and I work with an amazing group of

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doctors here. And, uh,

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I've been in practice with my group
since finishing dental school in 2011.

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And I have three kids,
a dog, cat, and a fish.

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Wonderful, wonderful. Thank you so
much for that good information. Um,

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to get us started with what we'll
be talking about in depth today,

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as you know, the presence
of technology in dentistry,

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especially artificial intelligence
or AI, is growing pretty rapidly.

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Um, in your view, doctor,

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what are the challenges at dental
practices driving this trend? Yeah.

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Well I think that we have to
take advantage of technology
because it's important

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for our patients and it can
add so much to our diagnosis

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and our assessment of, um, our patients'
conditions. But then, you know,

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it's always balancing that with your
own clinical judgment and experiences.

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So kind of balancing those two things
together I think is, is a challenge,

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but important.

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Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

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And can you share a bit about
how Commonwealth Dentistry has

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leveraged detect AI to address
some of those challenges?

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And also how has this approach
changed day-to-day operations at the

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organization?

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Yeah, so we are utilizing video
four multiple areas of our,

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of our practice flow. So from our doctors
utilizing it for caries detection,

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our dental hygienists using
the radiographic bone loss
feature to help diagnose

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periodontal disease and
then our administrative
team taking advantage of the

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insurance communication aspect.

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So I think it's really streamlining
the way that we can communicate with

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insurance on the administrative side,

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but it's also changing and
really benefiting, I think,

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our patient communication
and our diagnosis.

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Got it. Got it. Thank you
so much for that insight.

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And can you share an instance
where detect AI played a role in a

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patient's treatment acceptance?

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And also in what ways have you seen
detect ai enhance patient trust and

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communication?

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Yeah, I um,

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I actually had a really
interesting situation with
a patient maybe earlier this

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year, six, eight months ago. Um,

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we had a patient that had seen
a colleague, 'cause again,

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we're in a group practice,

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so we have multiple providers kinda
sharing the same patient pool. So,

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um, it, it creates an interesting
thing when a patient was in,

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she had just her general
cleaning exam checkup. Um,

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they grabbed bite wings and
my colleague, um, you know,

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informed her that she had no treatment
needs to return to the clinic for,

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so she came back to see
me six months later. Um,

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she was not due for
x-rays at that visit, uh,

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but I could clinically see that
something had developed on,

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in this case it was the distal
of six for this patient. Um,

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so I explained the need for
treatment to her and she was,

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you know, that patient who was
sort of naturally distrusting. Um,

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she had a difficult time believing
that she had a treatment need.

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Uh, when we went to do
the treatment, you know,

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we took intraoral photographs and
were able to show her the lesion.

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Um, and as soon as she saw
that something was going on,

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she immediately pivoted to a level of
distrust of the provider she had seen

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six months before.

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She could not believe that this could
have developed in six months. So, uh,

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it was so interesting and
so helpful to be able to run

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video on the historical x-rays.

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'cause thankfully we could see the distal
of that canine on her bite wings, um,

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from her prior visit.

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So it changed the conversation
entirely as soon as

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I ran the analysis and you know,

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Vidia did not detect caries on
the distal six at her last, uh,

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set of bite wings. Um,

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and I'm confident that my colleague
did not miss it six months prior.

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But having that piece of
information that was impartial,

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you know, um,

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helped that patient
understand that, you know,

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that's why you come in every six months
because things do develop and change.

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Our bodies are constantly, you know,
changing and in development. So, um,

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it really helped her, trust me, it
helped her trust my colleague. Um,

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and she was much more accepting
of the treatment, you know,

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being able to go through that exercise.

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Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for
giving us that example. I imagine that,

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you know,

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detect AI can be so important to a
patient's treatment acceptance and

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even though I also, I have to admit,
don't like coming in every six months,

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it is important. And so <laugh>,
I'm glad you made note of that. Um,

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before I let you go, doctor, the
last thing I wanted to ask you is,

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can you elaborate on the long-term
benefits you foresee in terms of patient

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care and overall practice growth within
the continued use of detect AI and

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industry?

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Yeah, I think there's just so
much we can utilize a pro, uh,

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products like this for
in our practice. And it,

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it obviously takes time to be able to
utilize something like this appropriately

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for our patients. It's gonna help us, um,

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monitor ongoing periodontal
and clinical conditions

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so differently and so well, um,

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which is something that I think our
patients are really gonna benefit from

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long-term.

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That will of course breed good
things for our practice. You know,

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in terms of either diagnosing things we
wouldn't have known about. Um, you know,

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obviously if we find two cavities
instead of one, you know,

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that's gonna have a very clear
impact on our productivity.

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But then just being able to continually
convey those things more clearly to

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our patients and have better
tools to show them, you know,

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what we see to make things more
obvious to the untrained eye on

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radiographs. Um,

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they'll accept the treatment I think
more readily and it'll improve our

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communication.

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And then being able to tie that
back in with insurance and save our

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admin team time, um,

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and have really concise,

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important information for the
insurance companies and standardize the

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information that they get, obviously
will help with our, our collections.

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And, you know, I think it's,

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I think it's so important that we
communicate effectively with insurance

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because, you know, as soon
as something gets denied,

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I think a lot of our patients immediately
think that it didn't need to be done

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or we recommended the wrong thing.
So I think having that streamlined,

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concise communication with insurance
from our first claim submission,

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um, to decrease the,

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the number of times that they try
to deny a claim or request or more

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information. Again, it just,
it's good for our patients,

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it's good for building trust with them,

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it's good for our administrative
team and giving them time back. Uh,

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so it's, you know, again,

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it really has positive benefits for a
lot of different areas of our practice.

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Um, so those things will just continue
to be very important moving forward.

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Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Uh, doctor,

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thank you so much for joining
us today for this discussion.

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It has been an absolute
pleasure speaking with you.

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And I'd also like to thank our
sponsor, Henry Schein, one.

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You can tune into more podcasts and
virtual events from Becker's Healthcare by

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visiting becker hospital
review.com. Thank you again, doctor.

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Okay. Thanks so much for having me.