Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
Thanks for listening. I'm Eric Carbahol, and today we're joined by Dr.
Terry Dolan. Dr. Dolan is the Chief Dental Officer at Overjet. Dr.
Dolan, thank you so much for being on today.
Oh, thank you. It's my great pleasure.
Absolutely.
Can you share just a bit more about your role and background before we get
started here?
Absolutely. So as the Chief Dental Officer at Overjet,
I've been in this role for a little over a year, and, um, I provide, uh,
clinical leadership, uh, to our Overjet team. We have a,
a fairly large clinical team, uh,
that works with our multidisciplinary group of engineers and scientists and
sales and marketing, uh, individuals. Uh,
and we all work together to develop these really innovative products that, uh,
serve both, both our payer and provider communities.
Yeah, super interesting background and role.
So excited to be talking about AI and dentistry today.
So just to kind of, you know, open up the conversation,
give us an overview of how artificial intelligence is being used in dentistry
today.
Absolutely. So we, we sometimes think that this AI or artificial, um,
intelligence is new to dentistry when in fact it's been used, uh,
for quite a long time, and probably behind the scenes without people really, um,
being that aware of it.
So if I think about some common examples of how it's been used for a while,
we think about cadcam or digital dentistry and digital dentistry workflows where
we've used technology to scan, um, uh, teeth and,
and to fabricate, uh, crowns and bridges, uh,
milling crowns and bridges. All of that work, uh,
behind the scenes is supported by, uh,
very sophisticated technology that uses AI and crown design. Um,
if I think about, um, aligner therapy for orthodontic treatment, same idea.
It takes lots of data points that are collected as part of a clinical
examination and then uses that data to, uh,
predict where tooth movement as part of orthodontics and all of that underpins,
um, the orthodontic aligner treatment planning. Um,
we think about p patient scheduling and patient management, and again,
a lot of that, uh, takes into account lots of data, aggregates it,
analyzes it and helps our front offices, uh,
do their work more efficiently and effectively.
So when I think about overjet,
the real opportunity with Overjet is that it helps our clinical teams
use their diagnostic information that we see in our 2D
radiographs and collects that information, uh, from practice management systems,
integrates it for us, uh,
displays clinical findings in a way that makes it easier for the clinicians and
the dental team to be more accurate, precise, efficient,
and patient-centric in the way they diagnose care.
And so there's really lots of exciting different applications, um,
in dentistry and, and I think, um, you know,
this is just the beginning and I would expect to see a lot of more,
even more interesting, uh, applications moving forward.
Yeah, some really interesting points there.
And it's so many uses of AI already that we might not traditionally have
thought about as, as being ai, especially, you know, around,
I know you mentioned aligners for orthodontic treatment and, um,
patient scheduling of course as well, but lots of uses already. And Dr.
Dolan next. Can you talk about any of the misconceptions that,
that you might hear around AI or AI and dentistry?
Well, so as you know, there's lots of discussion about ai. It's, uh,
especially with the launch of chat G P T and, uh,
generative AI technologies that, uh, it,
it's gotten lots of media coverage and lots of, uh,
conversations in lots of communities, the academic education community,
the clinical practice community. Um, and so, uh,
of course dentists might be thinking, well, you know, how does this impact me?
And in my work,
and probably one of the biggest misconceptions is that overjet or other
AI tools will put dentists or the dental team members outta work,
which we know is certainly not true. Um, in fact, um,
the positive side of, uh,
using these technologies is that it can really make our work more efficient, um,
easier, more fun. Um,
and so there's lots of positive outcomes, uh, from the adoption of technology.
But I do think dentists worry a little bit about, you know,
will this put me out of work? Um,
the American Dental Association's been paying attention to that,
and so they've made a really important distinction, you know,
what's the difference between artificial intelligence and maybe what we would
call augmented intelligence? And so in this case, AI isn't,
is not a replacement for dental professionals, um,
but rather it's a tool or technology that enhances our skills and abilities.
And so I think that's a common misconception,
and we work hard at Overjet to make sure that that distinction is clear.
Sure.
Such a critical distinction and one that we're hearing more and more industries,
um, or, you know, groups such as the American Dental Association come out and,
and, and, you know, sort of ease some of the, some of the concerns around that.
And Dr. Dolan, I know you work with a lot of dental schools, so how are they,
how are you seeing them prepare for the FU future?
Yeah, thank you for asking, and I didn't mention this in my background,
but before joining overjet, um, I spent 24 years, um,
working at the University of Florida College of Dentistry as a professor and
then, uh, later as dean of the college. And so, um, dental schools,
um, are working hard always to stay up with the latest technology and of course,
working to offer the best education to their dental students.
And so, uh,
many universities in general have campus-wide initiatives exploring ai,
uh, in a multi-disciplinary way. So their colleges of engineering or,
or medicine, uh, science in general are, are really, um,
doing good important scientific and ethical work, um, uh,
looking at AI technologies. Um, but dental schools in particular, um,
you know, are facing some challenges, uh, these days. I mean,
the impact of C O V I D on their ability to provide a robust, um,
clinical education for their students, uh, faculty shortages,
all of these things challenge dental schools.
And so many of them are looking at new ways to, uh,
integrate technology in a way that either supports, um,
the clinical education for their students, uh, maybe, uh,
allows them to use faculty time and, and, uh, expertise in different ways.
And so I think about, uh, some new schools that are opening up that are clearly,
um, focused on how to best integrate technology, um, including, uh,
over jet's technology, uh, into their clinical programs, how to use it,
um, in, in their teaching programs. Uh, we have a,
a pilot going on right now at the University of Florida College of Dentistry,
which has been really interesting to me where we are, uh,
giving students the opportunity to, um, use our AI technology.
They look at dental X-rays with and without the assisted
technology, and we're finding that, uh, one,
they adjust really well and they really like using the technology. And two,
by having that digital assist and,
and training their eye to look for common clinical findings,
they're actually learning faster and more effectively.
So I think there's lots of interesting opportunities to, uh,
continue to, uh, integrate technology, uh,
including over jed's technology into the dental curriculum,
the student's educational experience to really, uh, you know,
with the goal of course of graduating the most competent, uh, well-prepared, uh,
dentists and dental hygiene students, uh, to go out in the workforce and,
and provide high quality care to their patients.
Yeah, some really interesting uses or with that,
that pilot program at the University of Florida, it's interesting to hear how,
how, you know,
dental students are gonna be learning now and really just sounds like so many
opportunities for flexibility when it comes to clinical training and freeing
up faculty to do different things. So thanks for sharing all that. And Dr.
Dolan,
I know you were recently invited by the C D C to contribute to a discussion
about dental medical integration. So is is that the next frontier?
Yeah, I'd say absolutely. Although when I think about it, I mean,
my education, uh, started at the University of Pennsylvania, you know, almost,
uh, like 40 years ago. And even at that time, well,
ingrained in the dental school curriculum was the importance of oral health to
overall health and wellbeing.
So in some ways I think that this is not a new concept. And, you know,
I think, uh,
dentists and dental hygiene students have been educated to that importance,
you know, you know, for many, many, many years. But, um,
we know that our healthcare systems kind of operate in independent silos.
And I think with technologies,
we are now appreciating the opportunity to better integrate patient data,
you know,
whether it's someone's level of inflammation or gum disease in
their mouth with say, diabetes and, uh, how well controlled their,
um, glycemic levels are. Um, because this,
these data now exists in electronic health records,
there really is an opportunity to better integrate that data and to take a more
holistic view of a person's health and then, um,
and then work more closely so that if I have a patient,
say in my dental chair who has, uh,
chronic inflammatory processes and, and I know they're a diabetic,
um, I can work with their, um, physician providers, uh,
their medical providers, and we can work together to see, you know, maybe if,
uh, I provided some peritoneal therapy,
did some scaling and relining some patient education, uh,
to improve their oral health,
most likely that's gonna result in better glycemic control and less
complications related to diabetes. So I, and,
and now that we have more integrated healthcare systems, um, and, you know,
this is a constant evolution, but I do see that this is where, um,
healthcare delivery is headed, uh, that's more patient center centric, more, uh,
integrated.
I think there's a much better opportunity for the medical and dental teams and
to really take a whole health perspective and provide care that really
benefits the patient in a, in a more holistic fashion.
And Dr. Dolan, I am glad you mentioned that because I think it's such a,
a critical part of the discussion in terms of how do we actually start
to integrate and work better together, not operate in silos when it comes to,
you know, dental and, and overall health,
because we continue to see so many studies and there is such a recognition of
the importance of oral health on someone's overall wellbeing and,
and the rest of, of their health. So such a, such a critical component there.
And for a dentist or dental group that's starting to think about ai,
do you have any, any advice or thoughts for them?
Yeah, yeah, I have a, a few thoughts. Um, you know, one, you know, I hope, uh,
the fun part of being a health professional is that, you know,
we should have this curious mind, this commitment to continuous learning.
And, and I would just say stay current on not just the dental science,
but all the new technologies and products that are coming to the marketplace.
Um, I've never seen so many transformational changes impacting
dentistry in general, you know, say in the past five to 10 years,
as in the first, you know, 20 to 30 years of my career.
So it's really an exciting time to be in dentistry. And, and then I'd say don't,
you know, be open-minded. Don't be afraid of the technologies,
be informed about the technologies.
There's some really fun and cool stuff out there. And, you know,
and we do have to critically assess how it's gonna impact us,
our ability to provide better quality care,
how it can impact and benefit our patients.
But there's lots of opportunities to make our work life better, easier,
more enjoyable, more fun,
less eye strain because we have computer vision helping us, uh,
making sure we're accurately and precisely, um,
diagnosing common clinical findings on radiographs, for example.
So all of that can really make our lives better and more interesting.
So I would just encourage people to explore the opportunities to use AI to
improve patient care, uh, improve care delivery, um, and,
and really harness the power of the data that we collect every day, uh,
for those purposes. And maybe the last thing I'd say is, you know,
take advantage, um, over jet other companies offer the opportunity to,
uh, demo, you know, learn, see a demo of the, of our various products,
um, and so be an educated consumer and really explore the,
those opportunities and the potential.
Dr. Dolan, it's been a pleasure having you on. Really enjoyed your thoughtful,
engaging conversation today.
Oh, thank you. It's been my great pleasure. And on behalf of the Overjet team,
thanks so much for the opportunity to speak with you.
Yeah. And we also wanted to thank the podcast sponsor, overjet and listeners.
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