The majority of my time as a business owner is spent in the business, delivering Clinical Dentistry in my role as Principal Dentist. Right now, patient care is where I add most value to my colleagues, our patient base, and the business itself. It does come with spinning plates though, and most often I find decision making needs to be considered, but speedy. Otherwise I can become a bottle neck. Day to day, most of this happens in between patients and appointments, liaising with our practice manager, or front of house coordinators about patient enquiries, scheduling or governance decisions. The impact? My clinical notes can rack and stack, so come the end of a morning session, or clinical day- work doesn’t stop. Case reviews, lab work, aligner planning or emails are there to be replied too. Too often this disturbs family life and training for an Ironman 😅 Over recent months, I’ve tested several AI tools around clinical record keeping, some industry specific and other broader solutions. Nothing has come close to Dentally AI though. Personally, it’s been a god send. Blending transcription and AI note generation has refined my consultation process entirely. It does the grunt work, where I just, as they say, ‘dot the i’s and cross the t’s.’ The truth of it, and the beta testing has proven, it saves on average 3 minutes every patient interaction. Compound this over the day, weeks and months- I’m able to redirect hours of my time, and more importantly energy. 25 patient interactions a day, means those 3 minute savings stack to over 15 hours a month. Where AI can feel like it risks dehumanising lots of industries and roles, for me, it adds a tonne of humanity back into dentistry. More meaningful interactions, more present and purposeful resulting in happier patients. Happier patients engage and activate higher value treatment plans. Win win. In the coming weeks, I’m going to focus on supporting my wider clinical team to adopt both Dentally AI and Vision. It’s a learning curve, but one I am confident is going to help shape our patient experience for the better in the future. If you want to donate, as I’m raising funds for Rosemere Foundation- here’s the link- https://lnkd.in/eDquRhpf
Great to hear the positive impact AI is having on your workflow, in particular time savings and unlocking those hidden hours🦷💪
This is exactly how AI should be viewed in practice ownership. Love that it is buying you back 15 hours a month (and saving the Ironman training!). The biggest misconception holding the industry back right now is the fear that AI is here to replace human roles. It’s not a replacement; it is the ultimate lever. People assume automation makes a clinic feel more robotic, but the exact opposite is true. Whether it's doing the heavy lifting on clinical notes in the back, or instantly catching missed phone calls at the front desk, offloading the robotic admin work to software is what actually buys back your humanity and sanity. When you aren't staring at a screen trying to catch up on notes, or stressing about all the voicemails you have to return, you can actually look the patient in the eye. Like you said, it amplifies the human connection and lets you be completely present. Incredible win. Good luck with the rollout to the wider team! Dr Chris Ball