Episode : #951: Using AI + Other Tech in Your Practice
Podcast Description
Artificial intelligence is steadily growing as a presence in our personal and professional lives. In this episode, Tiff and Dana talk about how AI can be used effectively in practices, game-changing technology in recent years, and the never-out-of-style human interaction among it all.
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited. We are second month of a new year, and that means you should be tracking your goals. If you’re a Dental A Team client, you have this amazing new scorecard that we’ve introduced that my personal clients have freaking loved. And being able to see where those goals are so quickly in the month and being able to track along and see what we need to do to pivot or change or continue growth has been really cool. So welcome to new month, new year.
knew you. Dana, thank you so much for being here with me. I know you have a ton of clients that have been onboarded with that scorecard and doing super well as well. How is this new year treating you? This 2025, how’s it going, Dana?
Dana (00:46.03)
Oh, it’s going pretty well. Happy New Year to you and everyone listening. Yeah, I’m super excited about the scorecard. Clients seem to really like it and I think it’ll just be a game changer for 2025 to keep everybody just intentional and focused on the things to move forward. So I’m really looking forward to 2025.
The Dental A Team (01:04.136)
Yeah, me too. Me too. I have a client that I talked to actually this morning that was like, well, we needed to make some adjustments to the scorecard to fit their practice, which is why we say that we’re customizable because anything that we do, it’s got to be custom fit to that practice. So we had made some adjustments in there and then.
I was like, you know, you guys, know that you’re tracking everything. Like this office manager is meticulously tracking everything in the practice. So I said, this is like an overview. Like my meticulous tracker is like an overview for you guys. So make it your own. Let’s figure it out. But I told her there’s so many practices out there that don’t know what to track or how to track it or how to see the trends within the numbers. And her mind was just blown.
She’s the wife, they’ve owned the dental practice for years and years and years and years. They’ve been in dentistry forever. So she’s learned all of that along the way, but she was just mind blown at how some people just don’t know. And I didn’t know when I first started managing, I was like, what do all these numbers mean? And we all have to learn somewhere. So it’s just been really cool to watch everyone continue that growth in the new year and really, like you said, track along with those goals and see.
what can be done to manipulate and change the results to create something magical. Whatever it is that you want, can change those tracking metrics and change those results to create something really cool. Within that conversation, I’m excited about today, because today, Dana, we just prepped for this. And I think your track that you’re thinking for this conversation today is so beautiful. We talk a lot about new dental tech is what I’ll air quote it as.
kind of like new things on the scene. And it’s really easy to talk about scanners and lasers and all of those CBCTs and all the different things in the practice that we can implement kind of in the clinical aspect. I really love what you are talking about now with all the other pieces. There’s so much AI coming into play. And that’s what you had mentioned Dana. And I really want to chat about that because it’s so cool.
The Dental A Team (03:06.342)
I know I chat GPT, especially on my personal side. like, I create and think of so much stuff, you know, for Dental A Team, I’m sure you do the same, you create so much for us and our content. I know on my personal side, I’m like, Ben, chat GPT, tell me what to do. that, like, AI has really come into play strong, I would say in the last year. And this year, even a month and a half or whatever into the year feels like
Like it’s a do or die. Like you’re using AI. There’s just no two ways about it. So how have you seen in your practices currently, the AI bots come into play and all those pieces aside from chat GPT that can help with the patient response. But how have you seen those AI tools really be being implemented? And then I want to think about how do we see like the future, what that’s going to look like as well.
Dana (03:58.528)
Yeah, I think it’s actually pretty incredible some of the new like dental AI stuff that’s coming out essentially now you can use AI to be almost like a receptionist or a part of especially your front office team. Lots of dental tech companies coming out with
They can, you know, the chat bot or the AI bot can take care of missed calls or after hours calls. So now patients can have communication with you 24 hours a day, not just when your office is open. Being able to log into your system and actually schedule the patient without you there.
The Dental A Team (04:35.067)
Mm-hmm.
Dana (04:38.23)
and doing it really actually pretty well. And then sending, you know, a lot of the AI, the reception, it’s like, then they send you, you know, an overview of the call so that you know exactly what was said, you can add in any notes that you want. So it truly can be as if they called while somebody was in the practice. And so AI is really coming in strong this year, especially in the dental world. And I’m excited, you know, I know a lot of offices in my calls, it’s like they struggle with call volume, and they struggle with
The Dental A Team (05:06.285)
That’s nice.
Dana (05:08.685)
getting their team members to be able to handle the volume of calls that are coming in and still get their tasks done. So when you have something that can easily handle that overflow and keep you going and keep you moving forward and you can still have a pulse on it, I think it’s actually really cool.
The Dental A Team (05:14.163)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (05:23.313)
I agree, and it makes me think of vacation time too, because there’s so many practices that don’t have 20 team members that if people are taking vacation or if doctor wants to take vacation, there’s not two associates to take over the schedule. And so it’s like the practice is closing down. But one of the biggest fears I think a lot of practice owners have is shutting down the practice means there could be a week or how many other days of patient calls and patient interactions that are missed.
Sometimes we don’t have the staff to be like, hey, sometimes they want to take vacation with you, know, or the same time as you. So that’s what it made me think of too, is, well, grab a bot for, you know, that we have somebody maybe checking in on it and looking at it. Obviously, we don’t fully trust it yet. They haven’t taken over the world just yet. But having somebody monitor it, but for vacations, things like that, you said the after hours kind of extends into that. Or Fridays, a lot of doctors, and it’s a lot of new patient opportunities on Fridays because…
dentistry. You know, we love being off on Fridays as often as we can as well. But a lot of companies are actually off on Fridays or have flex Fridays. And so sometimes I think for the just humans in general for the population, Fridays are kind of a catch up day where we’re making appointments, we’re calling in, we’re asking questions and we’re getting appointments done. And so we miss a lot of opportunities there. And the dreaded Monday fell apart.
Dana (06:44.91)
Mm-hmm.
The Dental A Team (06:45.046)
So, you know, it might still fall apart. You might still get those calls, but at least it’s not walking into 30 voicemails on Monday morning and then being like, oh my gosh, everything we talked about in huddle is just completely destroyed because everybody fell off the schedule or whatever. So I love that. I love that. Have you seen to I know there’s a lot of third party companies, Modento and Dental Intel and Diversion, all those companies. Have you seen to I haven’t like looked into it. So I’m asking.
For reals, if they’re using any of those tools yet within their stuff, think Modento had some stuff like on the wire. I’m not sure, but, any opportunities or anything for like confirmations, right? Cause I know, I guess like Modento has done voicemail jobs. So it’s like, we’re already partially there with like voicemail jobs and the automated, voicemails or phone calls for re-care and things like that. So how do you think that’ll affect having the AI bot I feel like is so much more.
customizable and you can like give it rules. can give it lingo and verbiage and just kind of different things. So how do you see that transitioning for companies like that too?
Dana (07:55.734)
Yeah, I can’t say that I’ve seen any of the companies integrate it yet. I do think it’s coming, but I do think some of the newer companies that are doing AI really well and are coming out, they are offering those things like confirmation calls, like re care calls. You can get your basically AI receptionist to do those things for you. And truly, I think because it is customizable, it also does feel more as if it is a human versus those automated text messages that as much as we try to make them warm and
The Dental A Team (08:19.937)
Yeah. Yeah.
Dana (08:25.592)
friendly and specific and just from our office, right? AI, think is a little bit of a step above that.
The Dental A Team (08:33.717)
Yeah, I agree. I agree. think it’s caveat, I know I said chat GPT and I know a lot of people love verbiage. think Dana and I get a lot of, and the other, other consultants as well. But I know Dana and I for sure get up so many text messages or emails of like, how do I say this? I want to say this to my team or I want to tell my doctor this. How do I, how do I do this? Give me words. I have a couple of practices that just call it like tiffisms and like what would tiff say? And I’m like, holy cow.
which I love and I love verbiage and I love communication. like, warning, I guess, or a reminder, if you are going to chat GPT or whatever AI, any of that stuff, just make sure that you guys are still looking at it and personalizing it, especially if it’s you throw some, I’ve seen a lot of people throw things into a program like chat GPT.
that spits out like a patient response. And sometimes it is robotic, because it is a robot. It’s not a human on the other side. They did as good as they could so far with it, and they do really great job. But sometimes those things can still come off, like you said, Dana, a little cold or harsh. And so I just stress the importance of taking it, making it your own. I say the same thing about my verbiage when I give it to people. This is a template. I love giving templates, and I want you to make it your own, because it should sound like you. It shouldn’t sound like…
a robot a shouldn’t sound like a script, it should sound like you still. So no matter how you’re getting those verbiage tips and tools or what you’re choosing to do with it, just make sure there’s a human interaction side of it, and you’re bringing that humanization back to it. That’s my warning, my caveat there, because I do use it occasionally, or sometimes my brain’s just dead at the end of the day, and I’m like, my gosh, how do I make this recipe? Gosh, I’m…
ChatGPT is becoming a best friend in my personal life, feel like. But aside from the AI stuff, or you’re in transition with the AI stuff, I think that pulls into that teledentistry side as well. Because I know a lot of practices that are still doing a lot of teledentistry. Obviously, it was huge during quote unquote COVID times. But I think it spurred something for us in the availability to create more opportunities for our patients. So a lot of practices are doing the cosmetic
The Dental A Team (10:50.787)
consults virtually. And it’s really cool smile designs, smile makeover, all of these different variations of a teledentistry appointment. And I’m thinking with that kind of AI kind of smashing those two together, because that’s an easy opportunity to allow an AI bot or someone to schedule those appointments and have someone who’s like over the cosmetic consults when you don’t have the opportunity or availability in the practice.
So teledentistry is still really, really a fantastic idea, I think, and something that we don’t consider tech in our brains, but it kind of is. And it’s kind of cool to be able to say, let’s take a half day Thursday and take three hours in the afternoon and bust out three cosmetic consults or more. And I’ve seen a lot of success with that. Dana, have you seen that as well? You still have a lot of clients who are using teledentistry or considering it.
Dana (11:45.036)
Yeah, they do definitely do for different types of consultations and even I have one office that will do teledentistry to like pre-screen for limited right to see if this is something I just need to refer out or do we need to see you in the office? So they’ll use it for that to end some PEDS offices using it for like surgery or sedation consulting and I have one office that’s even trying to do some just case presentations or treatment.
The Dental A Team (12:14.493)
yeah.
Dana (12:14.786)
presentations if the patient left the office, right, and they can’t come in, just doing that too. So I think using the technology at your fingertips that make it that it’s convenient for the patient, that it’s easy for you, I think take advantage of it where you can within your practice.
The Dental A Team (12:31.234)
Yeah, that’s a great idea doing the consults because a lot of practices will have those monster treatment plans. So it’s like, okay, let’s have you back in for a consult. And we know that’s difficult to get patients to come back in, especially if we’re not accomplishing something, right? They’re not getting treatment that day. So I always tell clients who are doing that style of treatment planning, it’s totally fine. And I love it. But just make sure maybe we do fillings with that.
treatment console, but I think that’s a great idea to doing it by zoom or Google meet or any of those platforms really are a lot of them have free up to while Google meet is free, right for however long you want it, but even zoom has up to I think 35 or 40 minutes of free information that you don’t have to pay for. So that’s a really great idea because then it just locks it in and I think we’ve all become accustomed to this being like being in person, you know, I think virtual.
has become the norm. It’s almost weird to constantly be in person with people. Again, thank you, 2020. And I think it’s worked out well for the dental industry. So that’s a great idea to be able to do those bigger consults. And I too have some pediatric practices, even the moms who are moms and something happens and we’re like, I got to get my kid in. Like right now you got to look at this. And a lot of my pediatric practices will.
do the same thing where they’ll take a picture, send it in, or let’s hop on a Zoom call or Google Meet, and they’ll kind of tell the parent how to angle the camera or what have you to show whatever it is. I mean, I remember one time I brought Brody all the way in and I was working in office and I’m like, you have to look at this and it was literally nothing. It was like, he’s like, you are just being so silly. You are in dentistry.
you know these things, but as you put your mom hat on and you’re like, I don’t know anything, my kid, like something happened, you just have to look. And so I can’t even imagine being outside of dentistry and something happening to my kid and really not having any of that background knowledge. So for my pediatric practices, it’s been really beneficial to be able to do things like that and take some of that stuff off their plates. And for pediatric practices too, with the AI conversation, like they’re seeing so many patients.
The Dental A Team (14:44.728)
in any given day, right? They’re seeing 45 to 80 patients any given day with one doctor, let alone, you’ve got practices that have two or three doctors, they’re seeing a lot of patients. So for a front office team to have to keep up with the confirmations, even the check-in, the check-out, like, you’ve got to understand they’re spread so thin, and then they’ve got phone calls coming in and they’ve got new patients to schedule, and it’s hard in a GP practice to be working on the hour, but in
peed practices, right? We’re really, Dana, working on the 15 minutes. And so every 15 minutes, you have anywhere from one to six to eight patients coming and going every 15 minutes. So I think that’s a great idea to really be able to add that tech into practices like that. I love it. I love it. And I love the, I just love the transitions dentistry takes. We think back, gosh.
Dana (15:17.774)
Mm-hmm.
The Dental A Team (15:42.844)
Even three years ago, it was like, oh, let’s do a scanner, right? We’re doing that whole mouth scans was like crazy town. And it’s like, now you’re doing a whole mouth scan before you ever get to my practice. You’re taking pictures of your mouth just so my doctor can do a virtual consult with you and doesn’t have to be in the practice. So think it’s really cool. Um, hygiene side, I know we’ve talked lasers before and I think that’s still like one of the
Dana (15:47.816)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (16:10.541)
one of the latest and the greatest, but what have you really seen the hygiene side? I know I pick your brain on this a lot, be able to implement maybe not, you know, virtual or AI or whatever, but just how have scanners and CBCTs and all of this new-ish, right, within the last five, maybe even 10 years, how has that impacted the hygiene visits and the care that hygienists have been able to provide to the patients in your opinion?
Dana (16:37.676)
Yeah, I think the technology advances in lasers, in all of the microscope and the saliva testing and all of the things that are coming out for hygiene right now. It really just allows you to give more individualized care, that you have more options to get the patient in your chair, the best result for them, because patients come in very unique varieties.
The Dental A Team (16:56.881)
Yeah.
Dana (16:59.968)
every single day and so being able to say, I have this thing that’s going to benefit you. I have this thing that I know will make this area better and being able to have more choices of those to be able to give individualized care.
And individualized instruction too. I not even just things in the office, the technology that’s available even over the counter to patients to help with home care, to help with the things that hygienists are talking about those things every day. And so I think the technology has been a game changer in the last decade as far as being able to get patients results from adjunct treatments or different products or different.
The Dental A Team (17:29.117)
you
Dana (17:40.108)
things that are available now that just weren’t.
And things that don’t necessarily so much of the hygiene products that existed before and still do right it It’s patient compliance. So as long as patient does it does it correctly they get results and now there’s so many things that actually if I do this in my chair you get the results so I don’t it’s not so reliant on Patient compliance and patient following through and patient stepping it up It’s great come more often and I can do this come more often and I can oversee this and I can get you the results Which I think is incredible
The Dental A Team (17:43.447)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (17:52.123)
Mm-hmm.
The Dental A Team (17:59.686)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (18:07.731)
Yeah.
Dana (18:13.264)
you
The Dental A Team (18:14.173)
I agree. I love that conversation of just come more often and something that we’ve always been afraid of. Having that conversation with our patients, which has always interested me, because I mean, we tie ourselves by these rules that we feel like we’re in place by the companies we won’t mention today. We won’t go on that tangent, but we do like put ourselves in this little box. And it’s like, if we are here actually for the patient’s best benefit, then all of these things
Come into play for that. Come into the practice more frequently. Get your testing done. Like, let’s figure out what your saliva tells us. How can we positively impact your dental health and your full body health just by the foods that you’re eating or things you’re drinking, which is insane and so cool. And again, couple of that with a results-driven conversation over a virtual call. Like, that’s incredible. So you can help them.
just in so many different ways. And as you’re talking, was thinking, gosh, thinking about how different tools like AI can help support the team that you have. I think the first thing, especially from a front office standpoint is like, you’re going to replace me with a robot. We’re all going to be replaced with robots one day, right? Like 50 years down the road, guess what? I don’t know. But the point of all of those tools is not to replace the humans.
that we love and want on our team, it’s to provide them support so that they can do more and do better for the patients that are coming in, the other humans. So it’s like, these tools are being integrated to help support you to give a better experience for the patient base.
and to support the patients in their overall health. If I have more time to spend even interacting and having a simple conversation face-to-face with a patient who’s in the practice because an AI bot is scheduling someone for me, that patient is likely to say, yeah, that sounds great. I’m gonna stop drinking coffee because it’s tearing up my insights based on this test you just gave me results for. Like getting people to the level where they’re comfortable.
The Dental A Team (20:26.63)
Right? They’re open that vulnerability space of just having that human interaction. So if we can take confirmations off of your plate, if we can take these things off of the humans and allow human human contact and conversation and AI or bots to text messages, like I don’t need to send the text messages. Somebody else, know, a bot can do that. A service can do that. I want to be human interaction. I don’t need to be electronic interaction. So.
It’s really cool. Thank you, for that conversation. You’ve got my brain thinking, you know, and hopefully those who are listening got your brain thinking too and you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did. Dana, think we always like to leave with action items, right? And I think action items right now are really that conversation of how can I support my team with tools like this or where do…
Dana (20:58.638)
No.
The Dental A Team (21:18.249)
Where do my team members need support so that they can have that more human interaction? So I think that’s an item Dana and tell me if there’s something to add or if you want to spin this a little bit. But I think that’s the conversation and the action item is to really just start thinking about how your patient experience might be better or how your team’s experience might be better by utilizing some of those tools. Can we do teledentistry appointments for
you know, and not calling it tele dentistry, calling it your consults. Can we do consults by virtual? Can we get a bot or an offsite virtual assistant, someone that can help support our team? I that’s your action item guys. Dana, what are your thoughts? What do you want to lead them with today?
Dana (22:03.276)
Yeah, no, I love that and I think that, you know, leaders, practice owners take time even every year to just look at office optimization and is there a new technology? Is there a new product? Is there a new service or something that can help me optimize, whether it’s my patient experience or my team or, you know, services that I’ve got.
for patients, think it’s just a great time to sit down and look for opportunities there and how can you, like you said, optimize and help, not necessarily take away.
The Dental A Team (22:35.533)
I love it. Good. I love the word optimize. Good word to pull out there. All right, guys. This was a fun conversation. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I hope you got some good tips or sometimes hearing something that you’ve heard before will spin you to think, okay, gosh, now I really actually need to do this or yeah, that was a cool thing I forgot about. So have fun with it. Go enjoy it. Optimize your practice. Go optimize your team.
and really, really truly support your team and your patients in the best ways possible. And that’s how it comes back to you and they will support you in the best ways possible. So leave us a review below. We love a five star that tells us how much you loved this. Tell us what you loved about it. And if there’s anything else you guys ever want to hear, please make sure you send it along. [email protected] And if you need any help with your practice or you need ideas, [email protected] is an easy way to get that as well.
you can pop over to TheDentalATeam.com and sign up for a practice assessment if you’re not already a Dental A Team client. We love to just honestly give you guys ideas and tools. So thank you so much, Dana. Thank you for being here with me today and we’ll catch you guys next time.
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