Dental artificial intelligence programs can provide many clinical advantages for dentists, patients and insurance companies offering an additional care assessment.
Velmeni, a dental AI company based in Sunnyvale, Calif., recently became the newest developer to receive FDA 510(k) clearance for its program, Velmeni for Dentists.
With the approval, it became one of a handful of companies to receive FDA clearance for clinical dental AI, and the program is the first dental AI approved by the FDA to detect pathologies in panoramic X-rays.
For Richard Huot, DDS, chief business development officer at Velmeni, dentistry has moved beyond the "early adopter" stage for dental AI and is becoming more mainstream.
"At first, AI was leading edge technology for early adopters and large practices, but I think that's changing very, very fast," Dr. Huot told Becker's. "I would say we're past the early adopter stage and we're into the next phase, which is people are starting to realize that they can use AI in their practice."
More dentists and dental practices are starting to integrate AI into their operations because of the benefits it can provide to dentists, patients, insurance companies.
"I think AI provides almost like a third party type of validation of what the doctor is looking at," Dr. Huot said. "There's a disinterested third party that's sort of pre-diagnosed this for us, and then now my doctor's talking about and he's either agreeing or rejecting what they're saying. I think it's really reassuring to the patient, the doctor and the insurance company that there's some sort of consensus."
Understanding what dental AI programs can do now is the easy part. Thinking about and predicting their capabilities in the future is something that has been explored or discussed as much.
"I foresee that we're going to be able to maybe save the office some time on charting procedures for initial patients, as well as co-diagnosis that is going to help the hygienist," Dr. Huot said. "Even before the doctor walks into the room, staff are already working with the AI to get some sort of preliminary assessment of the patient. I think it's going to be huge."
Dental AI is already making its impact felt on the industry today. Based on its current trajectory, it could become even more important in the future.