Each February, our staff heads to McCormick Place in Chicago for Chicago Dental Society’s Midwinter Meeting. As the largest dental meeting in the United States and one of the largest in the world, more than 30,000 dental professionals attend the conference annually. We were thrilled to have our entire staff in attendance, as for the last several years, Yogi was in dental hygiene school and could not join us.

As with so many other industries right now, the topic that kept coming up during the conference was AI. Dental offices and companies that provide dental products are looking at ways AI can be used in the field, and I’ll be honest – some of the ideas give me pause. AI works best in repetitive, robotic actions, and I don’t know about you, but I am not ready to let a robot work on my mouth.

AI removes the “individual touch” that is important in dentistry, not just in patient experience and overall office culture, but also (and most importantly) in clinical application. There are many individualized clinical choices that need to be made and can only be reliably based on experience. Automation does not translate well to unique situations, so we need to be careful how we are applying it in dentistry.

I don’t have any doubt that someday AI will make a valuable contribution to efficiency, but trying to force it too fast removes that individual touch. There is no replacement for human connection, knowledge, and expertise – all of which are part of the patient experience at our office. Learn more about our office and team by following us on social media (@napervilledentistry), visiting us online at napervilledentist.com, or giving us a call at 630.420.0013.