Howard Speaks: I’m All In on Dentistry and AI! by Dr. Howard Farran, DDS, MBA

Howard Speaks: I’m All In on Dentistry and AI! 

by Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, publisher, Dentaltown magazine


Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is one of the biggest topics in the world right now. You’ve heard about people asking ChatGPT to answer their questions instead of having to wade through pages of SEO results. You’ve probably read articles about Nvidia’s stratospheric rise in value (to more than $3 trillion), based on demand for the high-performance chips that power AI technology. And you’ve seen the first companies roll out AI-supported software and programs designed to make practicing dentistry easier and more seamless.

I’m super psyched about the beginning of the AI age, because it reminds me a lot of how I felt when we started Dentaltown! Back in 1999, there were no social media sites or apps, so it was revolutionary that dentists could log onto Dentaltown and communicate with other dentists who lived and practiced thousands of miles away. Flash-forward 25 years, and Dentaltown’s online content now gets more than 1.25 million page views every single month! I think AI has similar potential to revolutionize how we communicate with our patients and each other.


How to get started
If you’re curious about AI, download a few apps like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude.ai and start by asking them questions. With search engines, your input is a question and the output is a bunch of links—you have to dig through sponsored content to find a link that looks trustworthy, and then the site takes a while to load after you click it. Once it loads, you have to dig through more sponsored content—and probably review multiple sites in this way before you finally deduce the best answer. With AI, you ask a question and it gives you an answer.

Now, as with all programming, the “garbage in, garbage out” (GIGO) concept applies. The exact answers of each AI tool will vary according to the information it was “trained” on, so especially now during the early stages, take any answers with a grain of salt!

But GIGO also applies to the questions you’re thinking about asking: If you don’t give good input, the AI tool can’t give good output. You can’t just say, “Hey, can you help me with my marketing?”—instead, you have to tell it: “My practice is in this ZIP code. Here are the cross streets. I’m trying to tap into the baby boomer and senior citizen markets. I’m trying to get more tooth-whitening business. Can you come up with something time-relevant to that market?” The more specific and high-quality your questions are, the more specific and high-quality your answers will be.

Right now, think of AI as a stool to help you get insights, summarize lengthy documents, maybe draft some ideas. It’s not going to be your magic little ticket! But before long, I can see dentists being able to use AI to ask, “Am I making money on my insurance plans?” and it coming back with, “Out of the 17 plans you take, you’re losing money on five, you’re breaking even on five and you’re making a ton on these seven.”

Today is the tomorrow we were talking about yesterday, and it’s all going to be at our fingertips. Start to familiarize yourself with AI to keep yourself ahead of the technological curve!

Discover more about AI in dentistry!

  • Click here to read Dr. Seth Gibree, a member of Dentaltown’s editorial advisory board, discuss how to evaluate AI solutions to determine if they’re right for your practice.
  • And click here for a comprehensive summary of dental software that uses AI technology to boost efficiency.

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