Looking Ahead in Dentistry

In this day and age, with things ever changing, it is so nice to be part of online groups. We all need information fast. It’s nice to have access to dentists from all areas of the country. ”

By Sanjie Jackson, DMD This world is ever changing. To me, it’s never been more so since March 2020. As a practicing dentist for the past 15 years, I feel like the last two have been the most mentally and emotionally challenging. Since the middle of March 2020, I have had to be more flexible, understanding and open than I’ve ever been as a dentist and owner. When I think about the future of dentistry there a few things that come to mind: artificial intelligence (AI), dental hygiene and comradery. I know, these things are very different; however, they all can and will affect the way we practice dentistry.

AI has made its way into medicine, and we now see an increasing amount of robotically assisted surgeries. I had surgery last year and my amazing surgeon used a robot to aid her during surgery. A surgery that once would have taken four or five hours was com-

pleted in approximately two hours. And, as seen in an article in Dentistry Today published April 28, 2021, AI is making its way into dentistry in different avenues. No, AI is not going to replace us as dentists. But it does have the capacity to help us with treatment planning by leveraging information from clinical and surgical data.

With the integration of AI as an adjunct, we expect improvement in long-term treatment prognosis and outcomes for our patients. Some areas where AI will be pretty useful for us — and may become routine — are in caries, periodontal disease and oral cancer detection. Being able to detect and diagnose these earlier will definitely improve the lives of our patients. Another area that seems to really be growing rapidly is AI-assisted orthodontic treatment planning. This technology can help clinicians determine whether better results will result from surgical intervention.

This brings me to my next topic: our hygiene departments. There is a nationwide shortage of dental hygienists. With almost every dentist that I talk to, and in nearly every group I am a part of, the topic of this shortage is at the forefront of discussion. I, myself, am feeling the pinch as one of our hygienists recently retired at the age of 70. In interviewing May 2022 graduate hygienists, I’ve learned that some are now expecting to make more than some PPO’s reimburse for an adult prophy. This leaves a lot of doctors in a pickle. Doctors and owners want to take care of our teams and our patients, but it leaves in a deficit — especially if you contribute 50% of medical and vision, contribute to/match 401K and give paid time off as I do.

What do we do? I have heard of two solutions to this problem over and over again and it makes me think that this may be the two new ways of treating patients while compensating our hygienists.

1. Hygienists being paid on a percentage of their adjusted production. This would cover costs of this team member, personal contributions for having this person as an employee, new instruments that may be needed, as well as toothbrushes and toothpastes given to patients. I can see how this could really help every hygienist be more active in the involvement of each patient’s periodontal health.

2. Assisted Hygiene. Since there is a shortage, we as dentists and owners have to adapt and find a solution. My concern with assisted hygiene is that I love relationships. And, I know my patients adore the relationship they have with the hygienist who has been with us for 25 years and new ones being built with our newest hygienists hired in recent years. I don’t want to mess with that at all. But, this is something I know is being considered by more and more dentists throughout the country. If the rate of assisted hygiene continues, what additional expanded functions will dental assistants be granted in the future and will dental practices just need less hygienists? Who knows? What I do know is that like everything else in life, dentistry is changing and we have to be flexible and adapt.

And, finally, comradery. I have always felt it within my dental community; however, from March to May 2020 we all needed it. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic there were a plethora of emails sharing webinars about how to take care of your team, how to apply for assistance, how to deal with stress, how to do online schooling with the kids and the list goes on. I even remember a local dentist sharing information about filtration systems that aid in keeping the air cleaner in our offices. The sense of community and connection was really strong. During this time new friendships were formed as we were all trying to figure out what to do. We were inquiring from our then colleagues, now friends what they were doing in their respective offices.

In this day and age, with things ever changing, it is so nice to be part of online groups. On Facebook alone, there are dozens of free private groups that we can join from Dental Disrupt Nation to Dental Clinical Pearls and, of course, Florida Dental Chatter. There are also groups, like the Dental Success Network, that have podcasts, webinars with a myriad of topics you can research and an entire training entity that can help you with your team. You can join private forums where you can ask any question without being judged.

Comradery used to only look like meeting in a room with fellow dentists learning but that too is changing. We all need information fast. It’s nice to have access to dentists from all areas of the country. To be able to ask a group of dentists their opinions about payroll vendors, for example, and get 20 responses by day’s end is so helpful. That’s part of what community is about. And I love being a part of that. Whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, there is no reason we have to do dentistry alone.