Innovations in Dentistry: A Conversation with Dr. Seth Gibree, Senior Director of Clinical AI and Innovation at Heartland Dental

This episode discusses the application and impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in dental care, focusing on enhancing patient care and operational efficiency within dental practices.

1. AI is pivotal in advancing patient care by providing consistent, high-quality diagnostics.
2. AI aids in effective communication between dentists and patients, improving understanding and treatment acceptance.
3. Strategic partnerships with tech providers are crucial for integrating AI into dental practices.
4. AI tools help in early disease detection, reducing treatment costs and improving outcomes.
5. The use of AI in dental practices enhances overall productivity by streamlining workflows and administrative tasks.

1. Introduction to AI in Dentistry

Dr. Gibree discusses his role and the significance of AI in enhancing dental care. Seth Gibree: "My job is to figure out how to help support doctors and their teams as they deliver the experience to the communities that they serve."

2. The Role of AI in Patient Care

Exploration of how AI tools improve patient care and experience. Seth Gibree: "AI enhances the patient experience by having a level of consistency that us as clinicians just can't offer alone."

3. Technological Partnerships in Dental Care

Discussion on choosing the right technology partners for implementing AI solutions. Seth Gibree: "It's important to find partners that are willing to listen, that are willing to collaborate."

4. Future of AI in Dentistry

Dr. Gibree shares his vision for AI's role in the future of dental care. Seth Gibree: "I foresee a future state where AI becomes as standard as digital x-rays are today."

1. Explore AI technologies that can improve diagnostic accuracy.
2. Implement AI tools that assist with patient education to enhance understanding and treatment compliance.
3. Partner with AI technology firms that understand and are committed to the dental care sector.
4. Educate dental staff on the benefits and use of AI to ensure smooth integration.
5. Continuously evaluate the impact of AI on patient outcomes and practice efficiency.

Dive into the future of dental care with Dr. Seth Gibree, Senior Director of Clinical AI and Innovation at Heartland Dental, as he discusses the transformative role of AI in enhancing patient experiences and streamlining workflows. Learn about Heartland Dental's journey, priorities, and the impact of their partnership with VideaHealth. Join us for a thought-provoking conversation on the intersection of technology and dentistry!

People

Seth Gibree, Mariah Mohammed

Companies

Heartland Dental, Vidya Health, Henry Shine, Align Technologies

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

Dr. Seth Gibree

Content Warnings:

None

Mariah Mohammed

Hello, everyone, and thank you for tuning in to the Becker's healthcare podcast. My name is Mariah Mohammed and I'm absolutely thrilled to be joined today by Dr. Seth Gibri, senior director of AI and innovation at Heartland Dental. Doctor, thank you so much for joining us today. It's always a pleasure to speak with the Heartland dental team.

Let's jump right into today's conversation. So as a senior director of AI and innovation at Heartland Dental, what are some of your priorities, key focus areas right now? Well, first I want to say thanks for having me, Mariah. I appreciate Becker's and everything you do to help the industry and so just wanted to start off with that from the jump. To answer your question, I would think one of the main things that I do is really just try to stay on top of innovation that's out there and look at kind of what products are coming down the line and how we can influence things for the better, for the clinician and for the patients.

Seth Gibri

Because ultimately, as a clinician, my job is to figure out how to help support doctors and their teams as they deliver the experience to the communities that they serve. And so they're the ones that are in the chair with the patients. They're the ones that are chair side and so just continue to look at solutions for them on how they can best support their. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Staying on top of innovation definitely seems essential for your role and for the organization, surely.

Mariah Mohammed

What has Harlan Dental's journey with AI looked like? I know many companies recently just started maybe a year or two ago. How long has the company been looking into this technology? So I've been involved in AI within dentistry for the last six plus years. So I've been working on it for a while.

Seth Gibri

So it's one of those things that you plant a garden and you have to have patience and it takes time and you have to water and you have to provide nutrients for the garden and sometimes that takes seasons for it to mature and for it to grow. Over the last six years, been involved with numerous companies, basically everyone in this space that you could name or imagine or think of to have conversations on how can products be created that really help drive patient care to a higher level. Ultimately, for me, that's what it's about. Yes, it's about creating efficiencies, but it's really about how do we help patients get a higher level of care and consistency day in and day out. And so the journey has been a long one and it's been really exciting to see and especially the last year or mean, just over a year ago, Chat GPT came out.

So everybody's learning about AI or they're involved in AI. And really, whether you call it AI, whether you call it machine learning, whether you call it computer programming, really it's how do you take data and processes and automate those to a degree that it creates efficiencies within the system, if that makes sense. Yeah, definitely. I think with technology it can definitely be exciting to immediately join into, but to ensure where to put it and how to work it can be costly and a bit frustrating. So it's nice that you have that experience.

Mariah Mohammed

What factors influence Heartland dental's decision to partner with Vidya Health as the company's dental?

Seth Gibri

I mean, I think a number of things always go into decision making. I mean, you should, you should consider multiple variables as you're looking at, whether it's products you're going to implement or even CE courses you're going to go take what's the outcome going to be or what's the perceived outcome. And then second to that is how do you manage the change of implementation? Those are huge things. And so when we look at partners in this space, whether it's health or whether it's other companies that are in the technology side of things, or it's Henry Shine, or Henry Shine one, or align technologies and so on and so on and so on, I could go down the list.

It's important to find partners that are willing to listen, that are willing to collaborate, and that really understand the ecosystem with what we work and how we support almost 3000 doctors. And there's a lot of variety among those doctors. And you have to be cognizant of what change means to them and how different skill sets need different solutions and how those solutions can be implemented. So a big part of our partnership with video Health and their partnership with Henry Shine one is that it just really went back to working on solutions together, a partnership, and then really strategic implementation of that change management. So how can it help workflows?

How can it help tasks to be more efficient and effective for the team? Because ultimately we're in a relationship business. It's my belief that we really, as clinicians, it's hard because there are the task side of what we do day in and day out. And I think it's important to remember we are ultimately in the relationship business and kind of always said, if it's breathing, it's a priority. Meaning if the patient's there, that should be your focus.

If we can create solutions that help them, help a clinician help one of the clinicians or one of the doctors or a hygienist spend more time interacting with the patient, understanding what their needs are, what their wants are, how this care is going to affect their life. They can really create more customized health care for them. And then on the next side of the technology, then you can say, okay, how can we utilize technology to catch disease sooner? So if we can stop the disease process before it becomes more advanced, then it becomes more costly, it becomes more invasive. And so if we can catch it earlier in that life cycle, then that's better for the patient and that's ultimately better for, in my mind, the clinician because it leads to more predictability and care, if that makes sense.

Mariah Mohammed

Yeah, definitely makes sense. And thank you so much for giving us that insight. How does AI enhance the overall patient experience and support the patient centric approach taken in Harland dental supported offices? As I imagine that's a big reason why AI is being implemented. It does.

Seth Gibri

You can go back, I don't know how old you are, but I'm old enough to remember the Reader's digest studies where they go to different dentists and they give you different opinions. And as a practicing clinician, I understood that you go to ten different dentists, you're probably going to get 20 different opinions. And so I think with AI, it does enhance the patient experience because it's almost like a built in, independent third party perspective. So it's like you have this built in second opinion. Also.

One of the things that I think it does is it allows you to almost be fresh. It's like a fresh set of eyes. Like if we're talking about radiographic AI to where it's looking at findings and it's looking for whether it's carries on an x ray, or if it's bone loss related to periodontal disease or calculus, the AI never gets tired. And so it enhances the patient experience by having a level of consistency that us as clinicians just the AI is not perfect. And so I think it's important to remember it's a combination of those two.

So it's not the AI versus the clinician, it's really the AI plus the clinician, or the clinician plus the AI findings with the clinician. This is something that I've positioned for the last six plus years and is a very big component of who we are at Heartland is that we're doctor led, we're doctor created, we're a doctor driven company. And as a doctor led company, it's important that these are findings. The doctor always maintains clinical autonomy, so they're taking in that information to help the patient experience to be better, to be more consistent. And so I think the feedback from patients has been great because they understand it's just really another set of eyes to make sure somebody's not missing something.

The other thing that we've really found is that AI helps from a patient communication standpoint. I mean, for years and years and years, I would draw on piece of paper for the patient on the tray cover, or I would try to explain to them, you see this darker area on your x rays, on a black and white x ray, and they would say they would see it, but I really understood that unless it was huge, they wouldn't see it. And so it's this kind of communication difficulty between patient and clinician, because sometimes we go to dental, so to speak, rather than speaking patient. And I think what we found is that AI really helps the patient experience by helping in communication with a patient, so they understand what their needs are. They understand kind of what's going on with their condition, and then whether it's catching something earlier and using preventive therapies to help take care of things, or talking to them about their home care, or it's helping them understand why they need to either have a filling or crown or root canal, or whatever the stages of their dental needs are, we found those things to be communicated better.

So that also helps enhance the patient experience. I think from a business team standpoint and from an intake of a patient, there's a number of AI tools and innovations out there to make that experience smoother, so that they're not going back time and again and having to repeat themselves multiple times as a patient, or streamlining the process of insurance claims, or payments or scheduling appointments. So there's so many efficiencies within the system that can be automated. And whether you call that innovation, you use software for that, or you call it AI machine learning, there's a number of factors that come into play. I think the other thing, too, is it enhances the patient experience by ultimately being able to understand the data that we have in regards to patient care.

So you've got somebody that's 35 years old, that's on these specific medicines that has this level of attrition. Then you can have a predictive level of care. So you kind of have an understanding of, okay, what somebody in that situation needs and how to have something that lasts as long as possible, because ultimately, that's what you want. You want a predictable level of care that lasts a long time. And so how can you understand somebody's risk factors?

Well, now you have an ability with software AI, machine learning, to be able to analyze that data across a wide spectrum of patients and then be able to really streamline care to a more efficient process. I mean, from Heartland supported network of doctors, we had over 10 million patient visits last year. And so that's a lot of data and a lot of stuff that you can correlate into understanding a patient's needs at a more granular level. Wonderful. Yeah.

Mariah Mohammed

Thank you so much for giving us that information on how the patient experience is affected. If we can go in a different direction, how is the adoption of AI expected to enhance productivity and streamline workflows in the offices supported by Heartland Dental? When I look at AI and I look at innovation in general, I'm not really looking at it as a production number, because I really think if we kind of put money aside for a second and we say, okay, what are we going to do that's in the best interest of the patient? The productivity comes so patients understand what's saying is nobody cares how much you know till they know how much you care. And if it truly goes back to the relationship business and the people business, which is what we're in, that's a huge part of it.

Seth Gibri

And so AI providing solutions that allow you to be more personal, to understand more about your patient, to care from an interpersonal standpoint at a higher level, ultimately creates streamlines that will lead to more productive environments. But I think the biggest thing that we've seen is that those that have adopted it at a high level, their patients are saying yes at a higher level. So the care that they're already diagnosing, and so if a doctor believes you need this as a patient, then they're diagnosing it. And so say the patient is accepting 50% of what you're diagnosing and moving forward with that. Well, if now they're saying, okay, let's do 60% of what you're saying, because they understand it at a higher level.

So that's where I think the patient communication and the case acceptance is kind of a really big barometer for me. So not necessarily like, are they diagnosing more, or is somebody doing something different in regards to a numbers game, so to speak? It's really more about how do you create a consistent level of care for your patients, and how do you get them to understand what their needs are then I think on the flip side of that, you're also able to take care of stuff earlier. And so there's some newer technologies out with innovation of restorative materials or regenerative materials that really work to kind of remineralize surfaces that at a higher level than something like mi paste or calcium hydroxide or fluoride did in the past. But even the technology is just going to continue to get better and better and better.

Mariah Mohammed

Yeah, absolutely. Very quickly, can you share an example of where AI has been leveraged to elevate the quality of care and increase case acceptance among patients? Got lots of examples. I mean, I just think really, patients being able to see it, so being able to understand, say, incipient lesions or they've got cavities that I've always told them patients teeth are like M and Ms. You've got a hard outer shell and a softer inner shell.

Seth Gibri

So if you have a cavity that's in that hard outer shell, we have a chance through oral hygiene instructions or remineralization products, that we can help those things at least slow the process. Now, with solutions like curadon and other biomimetic regenerative materials, we've got the ability to really heal some of those cavities when they're in that harder outer shell. And so I think just stopping that disease process, then you stop the. So I think that's a huge win because then you're stopping the process of restorative needs. So if you can get to something before it even becomes something that needs a filling, because once you drill on a tooth that's non reversible, you're never going to go back to what God gave you and what you started with.

So I think that's a lot of huge wins on the front end. And then on the flip side of that, if you can get somebody, say they've got a large cavity and they've got a broken down tooth, and you can keep them out of a root canal because you were able to communicate to them in a manner which they understood what their needs were, that they were willing to say yes. And now you're taking care of it six months, a year, or at some time frame before it becomes an emergency situation, they're able to fit the care that they need in their life in a more strategic manner versus it being an emergency situation. Because I know my wife, it would ruin her day to have to deal with a toothache and have something unexpected come up. And I think most of our patients are the same way.

I'm sure, Mariah, you don't want to have an emergency thrown in the middle of your day. We've all got enough problems to solve every day. So if we can figure out ways to predictively schedule things out, to plan things out, to anticipate needs, then those are all huge wins in my mind. Yeah, absolutely. I completely agree with you.

Mariah Mohammed

And I think from the patient perspective, AI is more of a positive for them than a negative. Definitely. What has the feedback been from the supported doctors, hygiene providers and team members on AI? Honestly, a ton of excitement because they see how it can help them. They see how it can make their morning huddle more predictable.

Seth Gibri

They see how it can help their patients understand kind of what they need. They see how it can make their day more efficient. And so really, from a doctor standpoint, from a hygiene standpoint, from a dental assistant standpoint, from a business assistant standpoint, it's kind of like every position within the office, there's something in it for them in regards to AI or in regards to innovation. And so as we look at solutions, I think one of the great things that we've been fortunate to help on in regards to these solutions that are offered in the dental world or in the landscape is our influence as a world class company. And part of that is to be in the room and to have a hygienist in the room to offer opinions and their perspective on how to make the solution better.

And so I think that that's also part of our decision making when it goes to picking partners, is how can they be strategic partners? And it really is a partnership. So how can we collaborate on building solutions that really help everyone in the office to be able to focus on their patients at a higher level? Yeah, that completely makes sense. On that same note, do you believe that access to this technology provides a competitive edge for supported doctors compared to their peers?

I would just say yes, because any tool that you're using that are going to help patients understand their needs at a higher level or create efficiencies when they offer that, they create competitive advantages. But I think we look internally a lot. So we look at, okay, we're a network of 1700 plus supported offices, and every office is based on the community and the doctor and the leadership of the team that's there. And so everyone's unique. And so I think that's part of a little bit of a competitive advantage in the communities they serve because it's a differentiator.

But I think also them having the ability to customize solutions to some degree kind of ties into that clinical autonomy or how the doctors consistently would diagnose for their patients. And so there is that customization component of it that also helps. So, yeah, I think it does create a competitive advantage, but I also foresee a future state where it kind of becomes like digital x rays and it becomes pretty standard across most offices. I mean, I can remember when I started in dentistry, there were no digital x rays. We had film rooms and dipped x rays.

As technology changed and things continue to enhance, those things will, too. So I do see a day where it becomes even built into imaging platforms or practice management softwares, and it becomes more standard across the industry. I think right now it's still early stages, and so I think adoption is just going to continue to grow. Yeah, absolutely. I want to thank you so much, doctor, for sharing your time and insights with us today as, as well as Heartland dental for sponsoring today's content to our listeners.

Mariah Mohammed

Thank you so much for joining us. And please be sure to check out other Becker's podcast. Have a wonderful rest of your day.