I recently added an associate to my practice. This is the first time I have ever had another general practitioner in my practice. She sees her own patients and also will do hygiene exams for my patients who happen to be on the schedule on her days.
A few months ago, I saw a patient on my schedule for a consultation who my associate had seen for his routine exam. During the exam, she looked at his FMX that was taken six months ago when he saw me. She found a nasopalatine duct cyst that I had missed. When she told him about it, he wondered why I didn’t catch it. The consult on my schedule was to ask me why I missed it. Talk about an uncomfortable conversation.
But it was after that talk that I realized what the power of artificial intelligence can be in dental practices, and the way I’ve decided to jump into it is with Second Opinion by Pearl AI.
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Second Opinion is a software that lives on your imaging server and analyzes every radiograph taken by your practice for a multitude of clinical conditions. It will then provide you and your clinical team with a color-coded alert of things to look for on the image. This is not a definitive diagnosis; this is a “hey, just double-check this” alert. Ultimately, it’s up to the clinician to make an actual diagnosis. The clinical conditions that Second Opinion can scan for are caries, periapical pathology, calculus, poor margins, and some bone loss areas.
The image processing that goes into Second Opinion happens very fast, basically in real time. Images become viewable in a secure browser window. I tend to look at the images first on the Pearl AI Second Opinion browser window to get a quick idea of areas I need to really look at closely. Once I have seen all the images on Second Opinion, I then look at them on my own imaging software without the AI. Because I had the quick first impression view on Second Opinion, I know immediately where I need to focus.
Second Opinion is not just for dental clinicians; it’s also a great tool to help patients visualize disease on images. This turns Second Opinion into a patient communication tool, as well. It can increase case acceptance in your practice.
AI is here to stay, and the applications in dentistry are coming hard and fast. The best way to be in on this early is with radiographic interpretation. Second Opinion by Pearl AI makes that integration simple, easy, and valuable.
Editor's note: This article appeared in the May 2023 print edition of Dental Economics magazine. Dentists in North America are eligible for a complimentary print subscription. Sign up here.
