April 2, 2026 • 23 mins
UK Dentists: Collect your verifiable CPD for this episode here >>> https://courses.dentistswhoinvest.com/smart-money-members-club
———————————————————————
A cancelled appointment shouldn’t turn into dead time, and a tiny shadow on a radiograph shouldn’t become a missed diagnosis. That’s why we’re paying close attention to the practical side of AI in dentistry, not the hype. After walking the exhibitions and seeing what’s actually working, we break down the AI tools that can genuinely make a dental practice run smoother and safer.
We talk through AI receptionists and voice agents that integrate with practice management software via API connections, monitor your diary, and automatically call a waiting list to refill last-minute gaps, even running multiple calls at once. We also dig into the human side: why obvious AI can feel off-putting, where patients still want a real person, and why the likely future is AI that frees up your team rather than replaces them.
On the clinical front, we explore AI radiograph diagnosis and how tools such as Pearl-style systems can act as a consistent second set of eyes for caries detection, helping you move faster while staying clinically and medico-legally protected. Then we move into AI that listens to calls and provides coaching feedback, plus dental AI note-takers that draft structured records quickly, along with the non-negotiable safeguard: you must review for hallucinations, missed priorities, and audio errors before anything becomes part of the clinical notes.
If you want more of this thinking live, we also mention the Business of Dentistry event on 9 May at the Eastside Rooms in Birmingham. Subscribe for more practical dentistry, money, and time-leverage conversations, share this with a colleague, and leave us a review with the AI tool you’re most curious to try.
———————————————————————
Disclaimer: All content on this channel is for education purposes only and does not constitute an investment recommendation or individual financial advice. For that, you should speak to a regulated, independent professional. The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up, so you may get back less than you invest. The views expressed on this channel may no longer be current. The information provided is not a personal recommendation for any particular investment. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and all tax rules may change in the future. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment, you should speak to a regulated, independent professional. Investment figures quoted refer to simulated past performance and that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results/performance.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr James (01:43):
As ever, you can claim your CPD for this episode
within the official Dentists whoinvest Smart Money Members
Club.
Smart Money Members Club alsoincludes multiple mini courses
and webinar series on financefor dentists, including how to
become as tax efficient aspossible, as well as
understanding investing.
All of this content counts asverifiable CPD, and you can
download your certificates thereand then upon completion of
(02:05):
each lesson.
In addition to this, we alsoinclude a whopping 10% discount
on your dental indemnity and a5% discount on lab bills for
dental principals, amongst otherperks and discounts for
members.
Please use the link in thedescription to claim your
verifiable CPD for this episode.
What's up, everybody?
(02:26):
Welcome to another episode ofDentists Who Invest Podcast.
We're here to talk about AItoday and how that is impacting
upon the dental field.
Because every time we go tothese shows, Dan, of which we go
to quite frequently, of course,and I see you nodding your
head, there's always a new AIcompany or a new novel way that
people are applying AI.
Dr Dan (02:45):
And for those who don't know, there's so many different
ways that AI comes intohealthcare and society at large.
I mean, there were so many AIproducts and services and
companies at that lastexhibition, weren't there?
Dr James (02:57):
We couldn't we couldn't step down one of the
aisles without tripping oversome more AI.
There was, and you know what?
Call me Mr.
Cynical, and I don't know ifthis shows that I'm kind of
getting stuck in my ways, right?
But I must say that I did thinkthe AI stuff originally was
kind of gimmicky.
Okay, but now I saw some of thestuff.
I'm like, no, darn, this iscool.
When I actually got there andsaw things, that was my
(03:19):
preconception that I thought itwas gimmicky, is what I'm
saying.
Dr Dan (03:21):
Did you see that um robotic uh dummy head with all
the valves in it and lightshining?
And it was connected up to anAI chatbot.
And and this uh what would youcall it?
Not an Android, is it?
It's like a robot.
Uh it's not a robot, what dothey call it?
Because an Android Like ahumanoid, a humanoid.
Dr James (03:41):
Unless my sci-fi knowledge fails me, an android
is one that resembles a human,right?
You know, but it's synthetic onthe inside.
But this was just I I think itwas just a humanoid head that
was a robot.
Dr Dan (03:51):
It was a a humanoid dummy head, if you like.
But it had facial muscles thattwitched and and facial
expressions that you know wentwith the words it was saying,
and it was connected up tosomething like some kind of AI
large language model or LLM asthey call them.
And so you could ask it anyquestion, and it would draw from
this massive database of seeingthe entire internet in one go,
(04:14):
and you'd say, Well, okay, so uhtell me, yeah, you know, what
files should I use?
An an H Flex file or a K-Flexfile to do a root canal, and it
would say, Well, HFlex files arereally good for this, and
headstrom files and K-Flex filesfor this, and you know, it had
a great dental knowledge, butalso it was there for patients,
so you'd say, Well, I've got atoothache, you know, what shall
I do?
And it would say, Well, a hotcompress can be really good for
(04:35):
a toothache, and then phone yourdentist for an emergency
appointment because you mighthave a hole in the tooth.
And you know, so it was comingup with really large database
kind of answers that were quiteuseful.
And I didn't hear ithallucinate once, apart from
when I asked it, have you heardof Dr.
Dan Shaffer, dentist in the UK?
And you know what it said?
It said, No, I haven't heard ofDr.
Dan Shaffer.
I did I didn't ask it aboutJames Martin though.
Dr James (04:58):
Well, there you go.
I mean, um uh you need to upyou need to up your uh Google
SEO presence by the sounds abit, Dan, because that was that
was the the limiting factorthere.
What the bottleneck, I guess,really, on the humanoid being
able to give you that sort ofinformation.
But yeah, anyway, no, it's it'sinteresting.
By the way, for the benefit ofthe audience, for those who
don't know, Dan is mycollaborator, or we collaborate
(05:20):
together on the Business ofDentistry event.
Shout out to the Business ofDentistry Event.
That next event is coming up onthe 9th of May in the Eastside
Rooms in Birmingham.
So obviously, we go to lots ofthese shows because we want to
stay abreast of what's going onin the industry.
And you know what?
On that note, let's do exactlythat.
What cool applications does AIhave that people may not expect
(05:41):
that Dan that you come across ata show or otherwise in the
dental industry?
I've got a ton, but I want tohear yours first.
Dr Dan (05:47):
Okay, so coming out of the humanoid and Android kind of
sphere, because I only saw oneat the show, and and it's
interesting what you said thatthe model was perhaps limited a
little bit by the informationthat it drew upon, so it knew
loads about dentistry, but itmight not have heard about a
particular dentist.
Um now moving on to uh anotherfactor, I think we saw three or
(06:08):
four different examples of this,which was Roboreception, or you
know, which which I'm using asa generic term.
Dr James (06:14):
Um and what it means just to caveat that,
roboreception is actually one ofthe brand names for those
companies.
Oh, oh, it is.
Dr Dan (06:20):
Yeah, no, you're absolutely right.
Sorry.
Yeah, yeah.
Dr James (06:23):
So what we should say is robot receptionists or AI
receptionists, right?
Dr Dan (06:28):
Yeah, I I'm not sure if the generic term is uh robotic
receptionists or AI reception orwhatever it is, or remote
reception.
Um, it used to be that you'dhave your receptionists in a
faraway country where labor wascheaper, and then you know,
they'd answer the phone for you,and that was you know, a
virtual assistant or virtualreceptionist.
Now it's gone a stage furtherwhen it's taken the chat box off
(06:50):
your website and it's put aperson with a voice behind it,
but it does a lot more thanthat.
It can, you know, you canprogram it in with the services
that you offer in your practice,and then it can phone out and
make marketing phone calls foryou to your patients and sound
like an AI.
And I don't know if you've beenphoned by AIs.
I'm still a little bitresistant to an AI, even though
(07:12):
you don't always recognize it.
Um, I I've had a few phonecalls lately from an AI and I
don't I can't remember whatthey're selling, but double
glazing or timeshare orsomething.
And um the uh the the voice,the first thing it says is can
you hear me?
And and in a very human voice,so it's very authentic, but I
(07:34):
know from that initial responsethat it's just trying to check
that it's got someone on the endof the phone that the AI can
interact with.
So I always then put the phonedown because I know it's a sales
call.
And I'm not sure if the rest ofthe population has that kind of
resistance to talking to AIs oreven seeing AIs in videos
still, you know.
You always watch and you think,oh, is that an AI or is it a
(07:55):
person?
And and it's kind of like agame in your own head to try and
weed out what's AI or not.
Uh James, are you resistant towatching AI videos or being
advertised to by AIs or phonecalls from AIs?
Dr James (08:08):
Um I mean, the thing is if I can tell it's AI and
it's very obvious, then I'm abit repelled by it.
But the I'm I bet there's beentimes before where I've watched
a video and not been able totell, and I probably thought
that was a cool video.
So uh that is your answer.
Uh if I if I if I'm if I'maware it is, yeah, then it just
looks a bit like lame, and Ijust think, oh, this is fake.
(08:30):
Uh but if I if I'm not, whichis I'm sure it gets better and
better, that won't be an issue.
You know, I had an interestingone the other day, right?
Because I got a spam call, andthis is nothing to do with
dentistry, by the way, but I'mgonna pull this back to
dentistry in a second.
And the very first thing thatthe person on the other end, or
the inverted comments person,said to me was it said, Hey,
would you would it put you offif you thought that I was a
(08:52):
robot?
And it was in this very roboticvoice, and I'm like, what is
what is their angle?
Would you not just like starttalking?
Like, it just seemed a weirdway to do it, but anyway, um,
talking about those roboticreceptions that we talked about
just a second ago, we referredto just a second ago.
Um, they're not like that,they're actually really
convincing, and you can't tell.
Yeah, they are.
I I saw one and this wasfriggin' cool, right?
(09:12):
And uh it's just a greatpodcast to have because we can
talk about all theseapplications that people might
necessarily know about.
Because I don't think peopleare aware of what these things
can do on all these applicationsof AI that we talked about just
a second ago.
Uh so this particular uhsoftware it plugs into dentally
via an API, okay?
It monitors your diary, you setup all the automations and
(09:34):
prerequisites, and you're like,okay, cool.
If a person cancels within 24hours, call my waiting list that
I will populate of patients,call all of them and try to fit
them in on this slot, right?
Now, obviously, if areceptionist has to do that, he
or she has a hundred millionother things they have to do in
the day, like talking to peopleand everything along those
lines.
So they'll do it when they havetime, but they don't always
(09:55):
have time, right?
Whereas this thing in thebackground, it'll call like the
a patient, then it'll call thenext patient, then it'll call
the next patient.
It'll even call five patientsat once, okay, if you want it
to.
Yeah.
And if it gets through to oneoff, then it'll book it'll book
the slot, basically.
Um, whereas to do that, theamount of if you're doing it
five simultaneously, because youcan have as many calls as you
(10:17):
want through these pieces piecesof software, yeah, uh, versus
one person doing it, then youremove the bottleneck, don't
you?
And you're way more likely tonot have that white space in
your diary.
And even if you have like twoor three appointments every
single month that are gainedwhere they would have been lost
before, that's worth a lot tothe clinic.
That is worth an absolute ton.
And the fact that it's allautomated as well.
(10:38):
UK dentists, Dentists WhoInvests now has an official
platform where you can learnabout finance and obtain UK
compliant, verifiable CPD at thesame time.
The only platform that existson which you can do both.
The Smart Money Members Clubhas hundreds of hours of mini
courses, webinar series, andlive day recordings on all
things finance slash taxefficiency for UK dentists.
(11:02):
This includes complete courseson how tax works for UK
dentists, finance so that youcan invest and grow your own
money, business so you canimprove your profitability as an
associate or principal.
And for those out there thatwant it, there's also a mini
course on how you canresponsibly enter the crypto
space using measured amounts ofcapital.
(11:22):
I've gathered this content fromthe best to the best I could
find in each respective area sothat you know that this is how
people at the forefront of eachfield advise their clients.
The Smart Money Members Clubalso contains discounts on
common things that UK dentistsneed to pay for on a regular
basis.
This includes a whopping 10%discount on dental indemnity,
(11:42):
the offer to beat your incomeprotection deal no matter what
you're paying, and for theprincipals out there, 5%
discount on lab bills and 10%discount on practice insurance.
These are designed to offerhundreds, if not thousands, in
annual savings.
The purpose of this membersclub is to not only boost your
monthly income but also manageyour outgoings as much as
possible and therefore createmore profit.
(12:03):
To celebrate the launch of theSmart Money Members Club, and
given that the CPD deadline iscoming up soon, I've decided to
offer the first month for thisplatform entirely for free.
This offer will end in thecoming weeks as soon as the
current CPD cycle is up.
To collect your CPD for thispodcast episode using the Smart
Money Members Club, feel free touse the link in the description
(12:25):
of this podcast.
Dr Dan (12:29):
Yeah, I was just whilst you were saying that, I was just
feeling really sorry for mylovely receptionist because
she's going to be really nervousabout losing her job.
And uh I know it's not a realworry because it will free up
her time to do the tasks thatare more human interaction.
So she unless we get an Androidreceptionist, of course, where
you know, but I think we'requite far away from that at the
(12:50):
moment.
Or a holographic one.
I've seen a couple of those aswell.
Um, but I think there's still aplace for uh receptionists in
you know normal um corporateenvironments and clinical
environments because people wantthat human interaction still.
They really want it, they are abit resistant to AI person to
person, they wouldn't be thathappy with a hologram.
(13:11):
Um, whereas in a phone call,probably we can get away with
it.
I think that resistance hasbroken down.
So I think it's a a continuedkind of um evolution of society
and societal norms that we needto continue evolving.
And I think year on year we'llsee more and more barriers
breaking down to AIs andholograms and robots and
(13:33):
androids and all the rest of it.
Because at the moment, you cango into a bar in London, you can
get your drink served by arobot robotic waiter.
You know, uh you'll soon have acleaner coming in to uh, you
know, tidy up your socks andpants off the floor and fold
towels and do the laundry thatwill be AI powered and robotic,
you know, within a few years.
Um, there's no there is arobotic dentist, and I didn't
(13:57):
see it at the exhibition.
It's in China at the moment,and it came out last year, and I
don't think it's in clinicalservice just yet.
And I think that's a long wayoff for dentists and dental
nurses and hygienists, because Ithink that resistance is going
to take a lot of time to breakdown.
I don't think that we're quitethere yet.
And I think if you look at thekind of jobs that, you know,
(14:17):
everyone's worried about jobseroding, um, you know, so anyone
that uses spreadsheets orgraphic designers or, you know,
lots and lots of differentareas, you know, we're we're
gonna start losing jobs becausethings are gonna become more
efficient by using AI.
I think dentistry, we're gonnaget more efficient, but we're
not gonna lose the workforce.
I think we're quite protectedfor now.
So anyone that's nervous aboutthat, just to reassure you, that
(14:39):
the um, you know, the uh theoutlook is is good for humans in
the workforce in dentistry andhealthcare still.
Uh let's move on to another umAI kind of uh application.
So thinking about the other AIswe saw at the exhibition, um
maybe it's your go, James.
Was there anything else thatyou saw that uh you know to do
with AI that you thought waspretty cool?
Dr James (15:00):
I've got a whole list of things, but I'm actually
interested to hear what you'regonna say because you might have
seen some things that I didn'tsee.
Dr Dan (15:06):
I saw the most incredible uh thing that I've
seen before, but I want tomention it again because I think
I'm just still blown away byit.
And that is the way that AI candiagnose from radiographs.
And I know we've talked aboutPearl Dental before, and you
know, Pearl is one of theexamples, and perhaps a leading
(15:27):
example that I've come across inX-ray diagnosis.
Now, there's a lot of studiesdone with doctors trying to look
at CT scans, and they find thatAIs are just far more
efficient, more accurate,quicker, like by 10 times as
much at diagnosing cancers fromCT scans and you know, caries
from radiographs and all therest of it.
(15:47):
So we know AI has a place indoing it.
We're worried about falsepositives, even false negatives.
We're worried about accuracy.
However, it seems that theaccuracy is there.
And uh I I'm just amazedbecause I started using um an AI
uh Pearl Dental in my ownpractice to give it a go.
And it saved so much time andit diagnosed caries where I
(16:09):
didn't know there was caries onmy radiographs, uh, and I would
have just missed it and I wouldhave let the patient go, and
that would have had a clinicalum uh what's the word, like uh a
negative impact on thepatient's oral health.
And also medico-legal issues,you know, you've got to think
medico-legally, protective.
I don't practice, you know,scarily protectively, but you
(16:31):
need to practice protectivelynowadays.
And having something backingyou up with an image, a picture
paints a thousand words, well,you know, something like pearl
dental AI looking at yourradiographs is a fantastic
addition to your practice.
I don't work for them, by theway.
I've got no association withthem.
I'm not an advert for them, butI am an advocate for using this
kind of AI to our advantage innot only an efficiency way, but
(16:53):
also a protective way.
So that for me is probably areally good one.
Dr James (16:57):
That was snappy, you know.
I don't know if you meant to dothat.
I'm not an advert, I'm anadvocate.
I like that.
I like that.
That was uh that was good,wasn't it?
Is that fresh off the top ofyour head or is that a saying
that I might not?
Dr Dan (17:07):
Well, I didn't I didn't realise I said it, but it is,
you're right, an alliterationthat you know always sounds good
when you alliterate, doesn'tit?
Dr James (17:12):
Yeah, it was punchy, man.
That was quite cool.
I like that.
I like that.
You know, I'm really consciousof time here because you said
this is going to be a short,snappy podcast.
One other application that Isaw that I thought was really,
really, really cool, and it'skind of on the receptionist side
of things, but it's kind ofunrelated to what I was saying
before.
Um, and that is that it you canactually get AI if you if you
(17:35):
make your calls, and this is asa dentist, right?
Not just as the reception teamor the support staff, a dentist
as well.
If you make your calls throughsome of the new AI CRM softwares
that are coming out, the AIwill listen in on your call and
it will give you feedback onthings that you should have done
better, right?
(17:55):
So, for example, um I rememberI went to this show a little
while ago and someone uh theymade a call, they were acting
that they were the dentists, andthey made a call to the
patient, and they basically theywere acting a little bit like
how can I say this over the topjust to see what the AI would
say.
And they basically made thisjoke about the patient's last
(18:16):
name that was kind of likeinappropriate or like a bit
crossed the line a little bit,you know.
Yeah, just just like it wasfunny, right?
But in the context of thesituation, it was funny, but it
wouldn't have been somethingthat you would have normally
said.
And the AI, it was amazing,right?
The AI actually picked up onit, okay.
And the AI, it was it was everso polite about it, right?
And it was like things that youdid well, you know, it actually
(18:37):
gave him feedback at the end onthe call so that he could get
better.
And it was said something alongthe lines of um, you greeted
the patient politely, you wereefficient in your communication
in that you booked the patientin at a desirable time, which
suited their agenda, uh, and youdid this in a very concise
manner.
And then it was like things youcould have done better, perhaps
(18:59):
consider not pointing out thepatient's amusing last name.
Some people make some peoplemay have taken offense to this,
right?
And it was just the way that itsaid it, it was like ever so
polite.
It was like, you know, it wassuch an obvious thing not to do,
but I really like that demobecause it shows what level the
AI is on, and it it was a littlebit like I can't remember the
(19:22):
he the person just basically hadan unusual last name.
His last name was McGrish.
All right, are you with me?
And then the guy or Mrs.
Dr Dan (19:30):
Banana Head or something.
Yeah, okay, I get it, I get it.
Dr James (19:33):
The guy on the other end of the phone was like, no,
but what's your real last namewho was acting as the dentist?
Okay, and the the the AI pickedup on this and was like, dude,
you can't do this.
What are you doing?
Yeah, I thought I thought itwas cool.
I thought it was cool.
Dr Dan (19:46):
It leads me on to another point, which my last
one, perhaps, if I can fit onemore in that I was really
impressed by.
It's a connected one, which isAI note-takers.
So we you know, we we've usedthem, James, haven't we, in Zoom
and Teams and you know, formeetings, and we get a nice
summary at the end of it.
Um, but the dental tailorednote-takers like uh that listen
(20:07):
in in the background, they mighthave a few issues, which we'll
discuss in just a moment.
Um, but I I tried one calledHeidi, and absolutely brilliant,
and I know there are lots outthere.
Um it listens to what you say,and then it has a programming
that says, right, well, here arethe dental terminology to watch
out for.
This is how we like the dentalnotes to be organized.
(20:27):
You you can then instruct ityourself, of course.
And it was so brilliant.
It set things out as I wrote mynotes, and it saved me a load
of time.
Now, what are the weaknesses?
Now, you need to check over itafterwards because you get this
thing called AI hallucinationoccasionally, where you know it
just says something really,really wacky and weird.
And if you don't pick it up,then that goes into your
(20:49):
clinical records.
And of course, we think aboutthese clinical records being
read out in a court or in frontof the GDC.
How's it going to look whenyou're you know you've got
something really wacky andwonderful that an AI's come up
with?
You really want to go over itand check everything before you
put it through and press thatokay button.
The second thing is that itmight not capture exactly the
things that you want to givepriority to.
(21:11):
So it might be that with thispatient, you might uh want to
give priority to an eatingdisorder, but the AI won't have
picked up the psychologicalimpact of that eating disorder
on the patient's oral healthnecessarily.
So you might want to go overthere and just re-prioritize
things a little bit in therecords, um, you know, in your
own style and what you're write.
So there are a couple ofweaknesses there.
(21:31):
Uh your microphone might not bethe best quality, so you might
get a crackle when the AI mightnot pick up anything.
Um, you know, uh that it mightconcentrate on the nurse, it
might not uh understand uh ifyou've got an accent or two, it
might not understand youraccent, which is particularly
salient for you, James.
It might, you know, pick up aword that you say slightly
differently to me.
Um exactly, exactly.
(21:55):
Um, but uh but yeah, really,really cool note takers, and
there's quite a few of them outthere.
I can't recommend one over theother because they're all
developing at different rates,and uh, I think those are the
future of what's going to behappening, certainly in
healthcare.
We can see it outside ofhealthcare in Zoom and Teams as
well.
So that for me is really uh,you know, the AI roundup, if you
(22:18):
like.
Dr James (22:18):
Hell yeah, thank you so much for that uh summary, I
guess, uh to yourself, Dan.
And you know, we share thisstuff for the benefit of the
audience as two people who go toa lot of these shows and want
people to know about the coolstuff that's out there to make
their lives easier, because thatis the point of Dentistry
Invest.
Anything that we can use toleverage and get back our time
is the aim of the game.
(22:39):
And on that note, that's whyDan and I are hosting the
Business of Dentistry event onthe 9th of May in Birmingham in
the East Side Rooms.
500 dentists are gonna be inattendance there.
We're gonna be talking aboutAI, we're gonna be talking about
income, we're gonna be talkingabout all the juicy s stuff
whenever it comes to thecommerciality of dentistry, how
to be better dentists, and ofcourse how to get back our life
and time as well.
(22:59):
Keep an eye out on thedentistry invest mailing list
for details on that very soon.
In the meantime, peace out,hope everybody has a smashing
day, and we'll see each othersoon.
As ever, you can claim your CPD for this episode
within the official Dentists whoinvest Smart Money Members
Club.
Smart Money Members Club alsoincludes multiple mini courses
and webinar series on financefor dentists, including how to
become as tax efficient aspossible, as well as
understanding investing.
All of this content counts asverifiable CPD, and you can
download your certificates thereand then upon completion of
(02:05):
each lesson.
In addition to this, we alsoinclude a whopping 10% discount
on your dental indemnity and a5% discount on lab bills for
dental principals, amongst otherperks and discounts for
members.
Please use the link in thedescription to claim your
verifiable CPD for this episode.
What's up, everybody?
(02:26):
Welcome to another episode ofDentists Who Invest Podcast.
We're here to talk about AItoday and how that is impacting
upon the dental field.
Because every time we go tothese shows, Dan, of which we go
to quite frequently, of course,and I see you nodding your
head, there's always a new AIcompany or a new novel way that
people are applying AI.
Dr Dan (02:45):
And for those who don't know, there's so many different
ways that AI comes intohealthcare and society at large.
I mean, there were so many AIproducts and services and
companies at that lastexhibition, weren't there?
Dr James (02:57):
We couldn't we couldn't step down one of the
aisles without tripping oversome more AI.
There was, and you know what?
Call me Mr.
Cynical, and I don't know ifthis shows that I'm kind of
getting stuck in my ways, right?
But I must say that I did thinkthe AI stuff originally was
kind of gimmicky.
Okay, but now I saw some of thestuff.
I'm like, no, darn, this iscool.
When I actually got there andsaw things, that was my
(03:19):
preconception that I thought itwas gimmicky, is what I'm
saying.
Dr Dan (03:21):
Did you see that um robotic uh dummy head with all
the valves in it and lightshining?
And it was connected up to anAI chatbot.
And and this uh what would youcall it?
Not an Android, is it?
It's like a robot.
Uh it's not a robot, what dothey call it?
Because an Android Like ahumanoid, a humanoid.
Dr James (03:41):
Unless my sci-fi knowledge fails me, an android
is one that resembles a human,right?
You know, but it's synthetic onthe inside.
But this was just I I think itwas just a humanoid head that
was a robot.
Dr Dan (03:51):
It was a a humanoid dummy head, if you like.
But it had facial muscles thattwitched and and facial
expressions that you know wentwith the words it was saying,
and it was connected up tosomething like some kind of AI
large language model or LLM asthey call them.
And so you could ask it anyquestion, and it would draw from
this massive database of seeingthe entire internet in one go,
(04:14):
and you'd say, Well, okay, so uhtell me, yeah, you know, what
files should I use?
An an H Flex file or a K-Flexfile to do a root canal, and it
would say, Well, HFlex files arereally good for this, and
headstrom files and K-Flex filesfor this, and you know, it had
a great dental knowledge, butalso it was there for patients,
so you'd say, Well, I've got atoothache, you know, what shall
I do?
And it would say, Well, a hotcompress can be really good for
(04:35):
a toothache, and then phone yourdentist for an emergency
appointment because you mighthave a hole in the tooth.
And you know, so it was comingup with really large database
kind of answers that were quiteuseful.
And I didn't hear ithallucinate once, apart from
when I asked it, have you heardof Dr.
Dan Shaffer, dentist in the UK?
And you know what it said?
It said, No, I haven't heard ofDr.
Dan Shaffer.
I did I didn't ask it aboutJames Martin though.
Dr James (04:58):
Well, there you go.
I mean, um uh you need to upyou need to up your uh Google
SEO presence by the sounds abit, Dan, because that was that
was the the limiting factorthere.
What the bottleneck, I guess,really, on the humanoid being
able to give you that sort ofinformation.
But yeah, anyway, no, it's it'sinteresting.
By the way, for the benefit ofthe audience, for those who
don't know, Dan is mycollaborator, or we collaborate
(05:20):
together on the Business ofDentistry event.
Shout out to the Business ofDentistry Event.
That next event is coming up onthe 9th of May in the Eastside
Rooms in Birmingham.
So obviously, we go to lots ofthese shows because we want to
stay abreast of what's going onin the industry.
And you know what?
On that note, let's do exactlythat.
What cool applications does AIhave that people may not expect
(05:41):
that Dan that you come across ata show or otherwise in the
dental industry?
I've got a ton, but I want tohear yours first.
Dr Dan (05:47):
Okay, so coming out of the humanoid and Android kind of
sphere, because I only saw oneat the show, and and it's
interesting what you said thatthe model was perhaps limited a
little bit by the informationthat it drew upon, so it knew
loads about dentistry, but itmight not have heard about a
particular dentist.
Um now moving on to uh anotherfactor, I think we saw three or
(06:08):
four different examples of this,which was Roboreception, or you
know, which which I'm using asa generic term.
Dr James (06:14):
Um and what it means just to caveat that,
roboreception is actually one ofthe brand names for those
companies.
Oh, oh, it is.
Dr Dan (06:20):
Yeah, no, you're absolutely right.
Sorry.
Yeah, yeah.
Dr James (06:23):
So what we should say is robot receptionists or AI
receptionists, right?
Dr Dan (06:28):
Yeah, I I'm not sure if the generic term is uh robotic
receptionists or AI reception orwhatever it is, or remote
reception.
Um, it used to be that you'dhave your receptionists in a
faraway country where labor wascheaper, and then you know,
they'd answer the phone for you,and that was you know, a
virtual assistant or virtualreceptionist.
Now it's gone a stage furtherwhen it's taken the chat box off
(06:50):
your website and it's put aperson with a voice behind it,
but it does a lot more thanthat.
It can, you know, you canprogram it in with the services
that you offer in your practice,and then it can phone out and
make marketing phone calls foryou to your patients and sound
like an AI.
And I don't know if you've beenphoned by AIs.
I'm still a little bitresistant to an AI, even though
(07:12):
you don't always recognize it.
Um, I I've had a few phonecalls lately from an AI and I
don't I can't remember whatthey're selling, but double
glazing or timeshare orsomething.
And um the uh the the voice,the first thing it says is can
you hear me?
And and in a very human voice,so it's very authentic, but I
(07:34):
know from that initial responsethat it's just trying to check
that it's got someone on the endof the phone that the AI can
interact with.
So I always then put the phonedown because I know it's a sales
call.
And I'm not sure if the rest ofthe population has that kind of
resistance to talking to AIs oreven seeing AIs in videos
still, you know.
You always watch and you think,oh, is that an AI or is it a
(07:55):
person?
And and it's kind of like agame in your own head to try and
weed out what's AI or not.
Uh James, are you resistant towatching AI videos or being
advertised to by AIs or phonecalls from AIs?
Dr James (08:08):
Um I mean, the thing is if I can tell it's AI and
it's very obvious, then I'm abit repelled by it.
But the I'm I bet there's beentimes before where I've watched
a video and not been able totell, and I probably thought
that was a cool video.
So uh that is your answer.
Uh if I if I if I'm if I'maware it is, yeah, then it just
looks a bit like lame, and Ijust think, oh, this is fake.
(08:30):
Uh but if I if I'm not, whichis I'm sure it gets better and
better, that won't be an issue.
You know, I had an interestingone the other day, right?
Because I got a spam call, andthis is nothing to do with
dentistry, by the way, but I'mgonna pull this back to
dentistry in a second.
And the very first thing thatthe person on the other end, or
the inverted comments person,said to me was it said, Hey,
would you would it put you offif you thought that I was a
(08:52):
robot?
And it was in this very roboticvoice, and I'm like, what is
what is their angle?
Would you not just like starttalking?
Like, it just seemed a weirdway to do it, but anyway, um,
talking about those roboticreceptions that we talked about
just a second ago, we referredto just a second ago.
Um, they're not like that,they're actually really
convincing, and you can't tell.
Yeah, they are.
I I saw one and this wasfriggin' cool, right?
(09:12):
And uh it's just a greatpodcast to have because we can
talk about all theseapplications that people might
necessarily know about.
Because I don't think peopleare aware of what these things
can do on all these applicationsof AI that we talked about just
a second ago.
Uh so this particular uhsoftware it plugs into dentally
via an API, okay?
It monitors your diary, you setup all the automations and
(09:34):
prerequisites, and you're like,okay, cool.
If a person cancels within 24hours, call my waiting list that
I will populate of patients,call all of them and try to fit
them in on this slot, right?
Now, obviously, if areceptionist has to do that, he
or she has a hundred millionother things they have to do in
the day, like talking to peopleand everything along those
lines.
So they'll do it when they havetime, but they don't always
(09:55):
have time, right?
Whereas this thing in thebackground, it'll call like the
a patient, then it'll call thenext patient, then it'll call
the next patient.
It'll even call five patientsat once, okay, if you want it
to.
Yeah.
And if it gets through to oneoff, then it'll book it'll book
the slot, basically.
Um, whereas to do that, theamount of if you're doing it
five simultaneously, because youcan have as many calls as you
(10:17):
want through these pieces piecesof software, yeah, uh, versus
one person doing it, then youremove the bottleneck, don't
you?
And you're way more likely tonot have that white space in
your diary.
And even if you have like twoor three appointments every
single month that are gainedwhere they would have been lost
before, that's worth a lot tothe clinic.
That is worth an absolute ton.
And the fact that it's allautomated as well.
(10:38):
UK dentists, Dentists WhoInvests now has an official
platform where you can learnabout finance and obtain UK
compliant, verifiable CPD at thesame time.
The only platform that existson which you can do both.
The Smart Money Members Clubhas hundreds of hours of mini
courses, webinar series, andlive day recordings on all
things finance slash taxefficiency for UK dentists.
(11:02):
This includes complete courseson how tax works for UK
dentists, finance so that youcan invest and grow your own
money, business so you canimprove your profitability as an
associate or principal.
And for those out there thatwant it, there's also a mini
course on how you canresponsibly enter the crypto
space using measured amounts ofcapital.
(11:22):
I've gathered this content fromthe best to the best I could
find in each respective area sothat you know that this is how
people at the forefront of eachfield advise their clients.
The Smart Money Members Clubalso contains discounts on
common things that UK dentistsneed to pay for on a regular
basis.
This includes a whopping 10%discount on dental indemnity,
(11:42):
the offer to beat your incomeprotection deal no matter what
you're paying, and for theprincipals out there, 5%
discount on lab bills and 10%discount on practice insurance.
These are designed to offerhundreds, if not thousands, in
annual savings.
The purpose of this membersclub is to not only boost your
monthly income but also manageyour outgoings as much as
possible and therefore createmore profit.
(12:03):
To celebrate the launch of theSmart Money Members Club, and
given that the CPD deadline iscoming up soon, I've decided to
offer the first month for thisplatform entirely for free.
This offer will end in thecoming weeks as soon as the
current CPD cycle is up.
To collect your CPD for thispodcast episode using the Smart
Money Members Club, feel free touse the link in the description
(12:25):
of this podcast.
Dr Dan (12:29):
Yeah, I was just whilst you were saying that, I was just
feeling really sorry for mylovely receptionist because
she's going to be really nervousabout losing her job.
And uh I know it's not a realworry because it will free up
her time to do the tasks thatare more human interaction.
So she unless we get an Androidreceptionist, of course, where
you know, but I think we'requite far away from that at the
(12:50):
moment.
Or a holographic one.
I've seen a couple of those aswell.
Um, but I think there's still aplace for uh receptionists in
you know normal um corporateenvironments and clinical
environments because people wantthat human interaction still.
They really want it, they are abit resistant to AI person to
person, they wouldn't be thathappy with a hologram.
(13:11):
Um, whereas in a phone call,probably we can get away with
it.
I think that resistance hasbroken down.
So I think it's a a continuedkind of um evolution of society
and societal norms that we needto continue evolving.
And I think year on year we'llsee more and more barriers
breaking down to AIs andholograms and robots and
(13:33):
androids and all the rest of it.
Because at the moment, you cango into a bar in London, you can
get your drink served by arobot robotic waiter.
You know, uh you'll soon have acleaner coming in to uh, you
know, tidy up your socks andpants off the floor and fold
towels and do the laundry thatwill be AI powered and robotic,
you know, within a few years.
Um, there's no there is arobotic dentist, and I didn't
(13:57):
see it at the exhibition.
It's in China at the moment,and it came out last year, and I
don't think it's in clinicalservice just yet.
And I think that's a long wayoff for dentists and dental
nurses and hygienists, because Ithink that resistance is going
to take a lot of time to breakdown.
I don't think that we're quitethere yet.
And I think if you look at thekind of jobs that, you know,
(14:17):
everyone's worried about jobseroding, um, you know, so anyone
that uses spreadsheets orgraphic designers or, you know,
lots and lots of differentareas, you know, we're we're
gonna start losing jobs becausethings are gonna become more
efficient by using AI.
I think dentistry, we're gonnaget more efficient, but we're
not gonna lose the workforce.
I think we're quite protectedfor now.
So anyone that's nervous aboutthat, just to reassure you, that
(14:39):
the um, you know, the uh theoutlook is is good for humans in
the workforce in dentistry andhealthcare still.
Uh let's move on to another umAI kind of uh application.
So thinking about the other AIswe saw at the exhibition, um
maybe it's your go, James.
Was there anything else thatyou saw that uh you know to do
with AI that you thought waspretty cool?
Dr James (15:00):
I've got a whole list of things, but I'm actually
interested to hear what you'regonna say because you might have
seen some things that I didn'tsee.
Dr Dan (15:06):
I saw the most incredible uh thing that I've
seen before, but I want tomention it again because I think
I'm just still blown away byit.
And that is the way that AI candiagnose from radiographs.
And I know we've talked aboutPearl Dental before, and you
know, Pearl is one of theexamples, and perhaps a leading
(15:27):
example that I've come across inX-ray diagnosis.
Now, there's a lot of studiesdone with doctors trying to look
at CT scans, and they find thatAIs are just far more
efficient, more accurate,quicker, like by 10 times as
much at diagnosing cancers fromCT scans and you know, caries
from radiographs and all therest of it.
(15:47):
So we know AI has a place indoing it.
We're worried about falsepositives, even false negatives.
We're worried about accuracy.
However, it seems that theaccuracy is there.
And uh I I'm just amazedbecause I started using um an AI
uh Pearl Dental in my ownpractice to give it a go.
And it saved so much time andit diagnosed caries where I
(16:09):
didn't know there was caries onmy radiographs, uh, and I would
have just missed it and I wouldhave let the patient go, and
that would have had a clinicalum uh what's the word, like uh a
negative impact on thepatient's oral health.
And also medico-legal issues,you know, you've got to think
medico-legally, protective.
I don't practice, you know,scarily protectively, but you
(16:31):
need to practice protectivelynowadays.
And having something backingyou up with an image, a picture
paints a thousand words, well,you know, something like pearl
dental AI looking at yourradiographs is a fantastic
addition to your practice.
I don't work for them, by theway.
I've got no association withthem.
I'm not an advert for them, butI am an advocate for using this
kind of AI to our advantage innot only an efficiency way, but
(16:53):
also a protective way.
So that for me is probably areally good one.
Dr James (16:57):
That was snappy, you know.
I don't know if you meant to dothat.
I'm not an advert, I'm anadvocate.
I like that.
I like that.
That was uh that was good,wasn't it?
Is that fresh off the top ofyour head or is that a saying
that I might not?
Dr Dan (17:07):
Well, I didn't I didn't realise I said it, but it is,
you're right, an alliterationthat you know always sounds good
when you alliterate, doesn'tit?
Dr James (17:12):
Yeah, it was punchy, man.
That was quite cool.
I like that.
I like that.
You know, I'm really consciousof time here because you said
this is going to be a short,snappy podcast.
One other application that Isaw that I thought was really,
really, really cool, and it'skind of on the receptionist side
of things, but it's kind ofunrelated to what I was saying
before.
Um, and that is that it you canactually get AI if you if you
(17:35):
make your calls, and this is asa dentist, right?
Not just as the reception teamor the support staff, a dentist
as well.
If you make your calls throughsome of the new AI CRM softwares
that are coming out, the AIwill listen in on your call and
it will give you feedback onthings that you should have done
better, right?
(17:55):
So, for example, um I rememberI went to this show a little
while ago and someone uh theymade a call, they were acting
that they were the dentists, andthey made a call to the
patient, and they basically theywere acting a little bit like
how can I say this over the topjust to see what the AI would
say.
And they basically made thisjoke about the patient's last
(18:16):
name that was kind of likeinappropriate or like a bit
crossed the line a little bit,you know.
Yeah, just just like it wasfunny, right?
But in the context of thesituation, it was funny, but it
wouldn't have been somethingthat you would have normally
said.
And the AI, it was amazing,right?
The AI actually picked up onit, okay.
And the AI, it was it was everso polite about it, right?
And it was like things that youdid well, you know, it actually
(18:37):
gave him feedback at the end onthe call so that he could get
better.
And it was said something alongthe lines of um, you greeted
the patient politely, you wereefficient in your communication
in that you booked the patientin at a desirable time, which
suited their agenda, uh, and youdid this in a very concise
manner.
And then it was like things youcould have done better, perhaps
(18:59):
consider not pointing out thepatient's amusing last name.
Some people make some peoplemay have taken offense to this,
right?
And it was just the way that itsaid it, it was like ever so
polite.
It was like, you know, it wassuch an obvious thing not to do,
but I really like that demobecause it shows what level the
AI is on, and it it was a littlebit like I can't remember the
(19:22):
he the person just basically hadan unusual last name.
His last name was McGrish.
All right, are you with me?
And then the guy or Mrs.
Dr Dan (19:30):
Banana Head or something.
Yeah, okay, I get it, I get it.
Dr James (19:33):
The guy on the other end of the phone was like, no,
but what's your real last namewho was acting as the dentist?
Okay, and the the the AI pickedup on this and was like, dude,
you can't do this.
What are you doing?
Yeah, I thought I thought itwas cool.
I thought it was cool.
Dr Dan (19:46):
It leads me on to another point, which my last
one, perhaps, if I can fit onemore in that I was really
impressed by.
It's a connected one, which isAI note-takers.
So we you know, we we've usedthem, James, haven't we, in Zoom
and Teams and you know, formeetings, and we get a nice
summary at the end of it.
Um, but the dental tailorednote-takers like uh that listen
(20:07):
in in the background, they mighthave a few issues, which we'll
discuss in just a moment.
Um, but I I tried one calledHeidi, and absolutely brilliant,
and I know there are lots outthere.
Um it listens to what you say,and then it has a programming
that says, right, well, here arethe dental terminology to watch
out for.
This is how we like the dentalnotes to be organized.
(20:27):
You you can then instruct ityourself, of course.
And it was so brilliant.
It set things out as I wrote mynotes, and it saved me a load
of time.
Now, what are the weaknesses?
Now, you need to check over itafterwards because you get this
thing called AI hallucinationoccasionally, where you know it
just says something really,really wacky and weird.
And if you don't pick it up,then that goes into your
(20:49):
clinical records.
And of course, we think aboutthese clinical records being
read out in a court or in frontof the GDC.
How's it going to look whenyou're you know you've got
something really wacky andwonderful that an AI's come up
with?
You really want to go over itand check everything before you
put it through and press thatokay button.
The second thing is that itmight not capture exactly the
things that you want to givepriority to.
(21:11):
So it might be that with thispatient, you might uh want to
give priority to an eatingdisorder, but the AI won't have
picked up the psychologicalimpact of that eating disorder
on the patient's oral healthnecessarily.
So you might want to go overthere and just re-prioritize
things a little bit in therecords, um, you know, in your
own style and what you're write.
So there are a couple ofweaknesses there.
(21:31):
Uh your microphone might not bethe best quality, so you might
get a crackle when the AI mightnot pick up anything.
Um, you know, uh that it mightconcentrate on the nurse, it
might not uh understand uh ifyou've got an accent or two, it
might not understand youraccent, which is particularly
salient for you, James.
It might, you know, pick up aword that you say slightly
differently to me.
Um exactly, exactly.
(21:55):
Um, but uh but yeah, really,really cool note takers, and
there's quite a few of them outthere.
I can't recommend one over theother because they're all
developing at different rates,and uh, I think those are the
future of what's going to behappening, certainly in
healthcare.
We can see it outside ofhealthcare in Zoom and Teams as
well.
So that for me is really uh,you know, the AI roundup, if you
(22:18):
like.
Dr James (22:18):
Hell yeah, thank you so much for that uh summary, I
guess, uh to yourself, Dan.
And you know, we share thisstuff for the benefit of the
audience as two people who go toa lot of these shows and want
people to know about the coolstuff that's out there to make
their lives easier, because thatis the point of Dentistry
Invest.
Anything that we can use toleverage and get back our time
is the aim of the game.
(22:39):
And on that note, that's whyDan and I are hosting the
Business of Dentistry event onthe 9th of May in Birmingham in
the East Side Rooms.
500 dentists are gonna be inattendance there.
We're gonna be talking aboutAI, we're gonna be talking about
income, we're gonna be talkingabout all the juicy s stuff
whenever it comes to thecommerciality of dentistry, how
to be better dentists, and ofcourse how to get back our life
and time as well.
(22:59):
Keep an eye out on thedentistry invest mailing list
for details on that very soon.
In the meantime, peace out,hope everybody has a smashing
day, and we'll see each othersoon.
Popular Podcasts
Hey Jonas!
Hey Jonas! The official Jonas Brothers podcast. Hosted by Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas. It’s the Jonas Brothers you know... musicians, actors, and well, yes, brothers. Now, they’re sharing another side of themselves in the playful, intimate, and irreverent way only they can. Spend time with the Jonas Brothers here and stay a little bit longer for deep conversations like never before.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.