Can AI Make Dentistry More Human? Dr. Ryan Hungate on the Future of Dental Technology

How Henry Schein One is using artificial intelligence to transform practice management, restore the joy of dentistry, and build greater trust between patients and providers.

From the Season 7 premiere of Kinda Different, featuring Dr. Ryan Hungate, Chief Strategy and Clinical Officer at Henry Schein One.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming dental technology. From automated insurance workflows to AI-powered clinical documentation, dental practices are gaining access to capabilities that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago.

But here's a more important question: Will these technologies actually make dental care better for the people delivering and receiving it?

That's the question at the heart of our conversation with Dr. Ryan Hungate, Chief Strategy and Clinical Officer at Henry Schein One, on the Season 7 premiere of Kinda Different.

Ryan believes we're approaching what he calls the "golden age of dentistry." Not simply because practices will become more efficient or profitable, but because technology could help dentists and their teams rediscover why they entered the profession in the first place.

How is AI changing dental practice management?

AI is moving dental practice management systems beyond simply storing information toward helping people take action.

Traditionally, practice management software has been a system of record. It stores appointments, treatment plans, insurance information, financial transactions, and patient histories.

But accessing that information and using it effectively has often required substantial administrative effort.

Henry Schein One's work with Model Context Protocol (MCP) is intended to change that.

As Ryan explained, MCP allows AI tools to interact with the underlying capabilities of practice management systems using natural language.

Rather than requiring a team member to navigate multiple screens or understand technical integrations, an AI agent could potentially interpret a request, identify the necessary system functions, and complete a workflow.

This also creates new opportunities for innovation.

Dentists and practice leaders understand their own workflows better than anyone. Historically, turning their ideas into software has required going through development teams, product managers, and long prioritization cycles.

AI could increasingly allow these domain experts to create solutions tailored to their specific needs.

The result is a shift toward practice management systems that don't just hold information, but help dental teams use it.

Can AI help restore the joy of dentistry?

One of the most compelling ideas Ryan shared was that AI could help dentists enjoy practicing dentistry again.

Dentists typically enter the profession because they want to help people. They enjoy clinical work, building relationships, and improving patients' health.

But years into their careers, many find themselves overwhelmed by insurance, billing, administrative requirements, and the business responsibilities of running a practice.

Ryan sees an opportunity to change that.

By automating repetitive administrative tasks, particularly in revenue cycle management, AI could reduce the operational burden on dentists and their teams.

Rather than spending hours navigating claims, correcting errors, or completing documentation, clinicians could focus more attention on the work that originally drew them to dentistry.

The goal isn't necessarily to see more patients or increase production, although those may be benefits.

It's to create healthier, more fulfilling professional lives.

And that matters for patients, too.

When dental professionals have more time, energy, and emotional capacity to engage with patients, they have a greater opportunity to deliver thoughtful, personalized care.

The opportunity for AI isn't just improving efficiency. It's creating space for better human interactions.

How can AI help dentists build trust with patients?

Patient trust is one of the most important factors in dental care, but it isn't something that can be automated.

Ryan described a familiar challenge: Patients often leave medical and dental appointments without fully understanding their diagnosis, treatment recommendations, or financial responsibilities.

They may question whether a treatment is necessary, whether their insurance will cover it, or whether the clinician has their best interests in mind.

AI has the potential to help dental teams address some of these challenges.

By making treatment information, insurance details, and patient history more accessible, technology could help clinicians communicate more clearly and confidently.

But access to information is only part of the equation.

Patients also need to feel heard, respected, and involved in decisions about their care.

At DifferentKind, our research has consistently highlighted the importance of shared decision-making, active listening, and patient consideration in building loyalty and trust.

This creates an important distinction: Technology can provide better information, but clinicians still need to use that information to create better conversations.

What is ambient AI coaching in dentistry?

One of the most interesting emerging applications Ryan discussed is the transition from ambient clinical documentation to ambient coaching.

Ambient AI uses technology to capture and process conversations during clinical encounters, with appropriate safeguards and patient permissions.

Today, much of the focus is on documentation. AI can help generate clinical notes and potentially support tasks such as periodontal charting.

But Ryan sees an additional opportunity.

What if that same technology could help clinicians better understand and improve how they communicate with patients?

Future coaching tools could examine clinical conversations and offer feedback about how information was explained, whether patients appeared to understand their options, and how clinicians might approach similar conversations differently.

The purpose would not be to interrupt clinicians during treatment, but to support reflection and learning afterward.

For example, a dentist might receive suggestions about how to explain a complex procedure more clearly or involve a patient more effectively in treatment decisions.

This creates a potentially powerful opportunity for continuous professional development.

Of course, thoughtful implementation matters. Patient privacy, consent, clinician trust, and appropriate oversight must remain central.

And there is an important distinction between analyzing a conversation and understanding how a patient actually experienced that conversation.

Both perspectives can contribute to improving care.

Why does price transparency matter for patient trust?

Price transparency emerged repeatedly during the conversation.

Ryan raised a simple comparison: Imagine shopping online and being told the final price was only an estimate, with the possibility of receiving an unexpected additional bill months later.

Yet this kind of uncertainty is familiar to many dental patients.

The challenge isn't necessarily that dental professionals are unwilling to communicate costs. It's that insurance complexity and fragmented systems make accurate, understandable estimates difficult to provide.

Ryan described the need to enable price transparency, giving teams the tools and information necessary to explain financial responsibilities before treatment.

DifferentKind's research supports the importance of this issue.

In our analysis of more than 100,000 patient-provided data points across 14 experience metrics, price transparency showed the greatest variability across dental practices.

That makes financial communication one of the clearest opportunities for practices to differentiate themselves and build trust.

When patients understand the costs and benefits of treatment, they're better positioned to make informed decisions about their health.

AI-powered insurance and financial workflows could help make those conversations easier, more accurate, and more consistent.

What does the future of human-centered dental technology look like?

Perhaps the most important takeaway from our conversation was that the future of dental innovation should be measured by more than efficiency.

Faster workflows, automated claims, and more sophisticated AI agents all have tremendous potential.

But the ultimate measure of success should also include what patients and dental professionals experience.

Are patients more confident about their treatment decisions?

Do they understand their costs?

Do they feel listened to and respected?

Are clinicians finding greater meaning and satisfaction in their work?

And, importantly, are patients experiencing better health outcomes?

Ryan offered a personal example of what builds trust for him as a patient: a clinician who remembers him, asks about his family, and makes him feel known.

These small, human interactions matter.

As AI becomes more deeply integrated into dentistry, the greatest opportunity may be to use technology to make those interactions more meaningful, not replace them.

At DifferentKind, we believe understanding the patient's perspective is essential to this future. Clinical, operational, and financial data tell us important things about care, but patient-reported experiences and outcomes add another dimension: whether care actually worked for the person receiving it.

Combining these perspectives offers a more complete understanding of quality and a stronger foundation for meaningful improvement.

The future of dentistry shouldn't just be more automated. It should be more human.

And if technology helps make that possible, we really may be approaching a golden age of dentistry.

Listen to the full conversation

In the Season 7 premiere of Kinda Different, Dr. Matt Allen and Dr. Ryan Hungate explore MCP, AI agents, ambient clinical coaching, price transparency, professional fulfillment, and the future of patient-centered dental care.

Watch the full episode: [Insert YouTube link]

About Kinda Different: Hosted by Dr. Matt Allen, CEO and co-founder of DifferentKind, Kinda Different brings together innovators and leaders working to make dental care more human.

Learn more: DifferentKind | Henry Schein One

Frequently Asked Questions

What is MCP in dental practice management?

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a framework that helps AI systems interact with software tools and data. In dental practice management, it can allow AI agents to access system capabilities and perform authorized tasks through natural-language instructions.

How can AI improve the dental patient experience?

AI can reduce administrative work, support clearer insurance and cost communication, improve clinical documentation, and help dental teams identify opportunities to communicate more effectively with patients.

What is ambient AI coaching for dentists?

Ambient AI coaching is an emerging approach that uses information captured during clinical conversations to provide feedback and learning opportunities for providers. It may help clinicians improve communication, patient education, and shared decision-making.

Why is price transparency important in dentistry?

Clear cost information helps patients understand their financial responsibilities, compare treatment options, and make more confident decisions. DifferentKind's research has identified price transparency as one of the largest areas of variation in patient experience across dental practices.

Can AI replace human relationships in dental care?

AI can support better relationships by reducing administrative friction and making useful information more accessible. However, trust still depends on human behaviors such as listening, empathy, clear communication, and involving patients in decisions about their care.

‍

Transcript

Welcome back to the season premiere of Season 7 of Kinda Different, a dental podcast where we talk about innovation and dental care. We connect with some of the best people in the industry, and we talk about together how we can all make dental care more human. I mentioned connecting with some of the best people in the industry.
I'm super excited for today's guest. You have probably seen him around a lot this year, as Henry Schein One has been rolling out some new products, and he's been out there working with you in conference rooms and helping vibe code things. Dr. Ryan Hungate, who's the Chief Strategy and Clinical Officer at Henry Schein One, is our guest for the kickoff today of Season 7.
I am Dr. Matt Allen, CEO and co-founder of DifferentKinds. Ryan, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. I'm super excited to have you.
Why don't you just give a quick overview for people who might not know you, which would be crazy, but for people who might not know you, who you are, what you do, and then we'll dive in.
Yeah, absolutely, man. Thanks so much for having me. This is good.
The kickoff guest.
Boom.
We got to set the year off, right?
Yeah.
Look, this will be a lot of fun. Yeah, so been out there a lot. So like you said, Chief Strategy and Clinical Officer for Henry Schein One, I like to think I'm the person that helps see around corners.
And at the same time, make it so this stuff's actually adoptable within these dental practices out there. And look, there's been a lot of these different issues plaguing dentistry since the 80s. So like revenue cycle management, I still think we've got that right.
And now that we feel like we're on a great trajectory with revenue cycle, we're even moving now into the clinical side of things. So how do I increase trust, Chair Side? How do I increase affordability, Chair Side?
And if we can do both of those, how do I increase treatment acceptance? And even better yet, if I can increase trust and affordability enough, maybe just maybe we increase treatment completion. So these are the things that I've been working on really hard with our team over here at Henry Schein One and with the use of things like artificial intelligence and coding, we've kind of moved from that, hey, you're not going fast enough.
That was our number one complaint to now. Hey, you're going too fast. I wasn't even able to adopt the stuff you did last three months ago.
So we're really focusing a lot on the discoverability and adoptability of our technology nowadays.
Love it. I don't want to sit there and rehash the MCP because I know that you have talked about it a lot and there's plenty of articles and podcasts and you've been to a lot of conferences and shared that stuff with people. But I do want to explore it a little bit deeper because I think it's interesting from the perspective of innovation as we think about what that unlocks.
Ultimately, I think it's interesting because it potentially changes who can not just build on top of practice management systems, but kind of use them and drive action from them. One of my, there's an investor at Elmer Ventures named Marissa Moore. She talks about this kind of concept of like a system of record to a system of action to a system of intelligence, right?
And ultimately, the MCP feels like it's driving toward that kind of system of intelligence. And I think my question for you is like, what do you think this unlocks for dentistry from like a really like hands on the ground, boots on the ground, you know, perspective that wasn't even possible a year ago? Yeah, what would you say to that?
Well, so I think it's a couple of different things. So you know, as hopefully a bunch of nerds know now, but if not, we hit AGI the other day, right? Open AI hit it, and I think Claude followed with Opus 55 right after that.
And for those who don't know what AGI is, basically means that AI is now as smart as all the world combined. Which is pretty intense to think about, right? Where we will be, according to the Chief Strategy Officer over at Anthropic, who was meeting with us the other day in a big gathering over at this Deloitte University thing, which was pretty cool.
He did it with a coffee cup in his hand, which was pretty unnerving to me. To me, he never set the damn thing down. So it's like he just walked in off the subway and told us these things matter of fact.
I was like, that's pretty interesting. Basically, he said that in about three or four months, we are going to hit what's called a country of geniuses. So basically, it's now beyond AGI, it's smarter than us, but then imagine every single person in the country was all like Ph.D.
geniuses. So that's where we're at then. And then about two years from now, he thinks, there's rumor that Google DeepLine hit it the other day, but that would be just crazy, we'll hit RSI, which is where the previous model trains the next model.
So for the layman person, that's Terminator. So it's one of those things where hopeless, benevolent, it loves us at that point in time, but that's where we're going. Now, let's put our optimism hat on for a second.
What it really enables is, look, every doctor, every domain expert in a practice has known what they need for since day one. They're the domain experts. But I think you kind of said it where the domain experts and being able to output exactly what they need, that's kind of an oil and water.
You've had to come to us over at Henry Schein One and said, hey, here's my idea, that idea has then been diluted down to a product manager, has then tried to be fit into some priority, and then applied to every practice in the United States. And that's never exactly what you want. What the MCP layer has done, besides allowing AI like Claude and Codex and ChatGBT and all those good things to actually understand our build layer, APIs that you would have had to have been honestly an engineer to understand.
And now, it's, hey, I want to schedule a patient. Cool. It goes, all right, I need to use these 25 APIs to do that.
Cool. It grabs those 25 APIs and it schedules the patient. So it allows you to use natural language to do that.
So that really allows these domain experts to translate their ideas into products for the first time ever. And it might be even down to the doctor of how specific we get on these things. And I think it's our job as Henry Schein One to manage what we're kind of adopting the terminology similar to like a Palantir, ontology, right?
No, we're not Palantir in that sense, right? Right, it's just a knowledge layer. And you have to keep specific knowledge layers down to the doctor, then to the location, then to the region, then to the, if you're in a DSO, to a DSO, and then to overarching to all dentistry.
You know, for example, we do 130 million claims a year. That means that we can reverse engineer plans for the first time ever. We can see the Cark and Rark codes that come back.
These are the cool things that that MCP layer helps enable for everybody out there. So really, the long story short is you're going to be able to build and experience what you want.
I love it. I think one of the things that feels pretty, that I've heard a lot, right? And I think that just the abundance of knowledge and a contextualized knowledge to a specific practice or to a specific doctor or to a specific decoder, whatever it might be, right?
One of the things that we just hear a lot of like, hey, as technology and innovation continues to advance, what that's going to do is get people back more time. And that's great, right? Because from the perspective of like, well, you can use that to like interact with the patient.
My like push back to that has always been like, well, if you don't actually know how to interact with the patients, it's pretty hard, right? So I think we need to do better at that as a dental industry. But I think my question to you there is just in general, right?
Like, let's assume that that is true, that people are getting the information when they need, where they need, exactly how they need it, right? And they do have like, hey, this doesn't take me 30 minutes to check a patient's insurance and whatever. Like, it's done, it's easy, it's fast.
What do you hope they do with that time? Like, what would you say of like, hey, you know, we're peering around the corner of, great, like, there's always gonna be more work to do. So what does that enable people to actually accomplish with that extra time?
I hope they go golfing and coach some T-ball. You know, like, that's what I'm really hoping. No, it's...
I mean, that's good, right? Like, that's... Right?
It's awesome.
Do what you want because, look, you're gonna make the same amount of money, if not more, during that time, which is pretty cool.
Yeah.
Look, we see it as the following. When you came out of dental school, I always tell people, I didn't know I had to file a claim to get paid, right? Because I had never seen that portion of that...
I knew they swiped a credit card, and I knew that they paid their portion, but I didn't understand that there was another half to that. And maybe I'm the idiot in that bunch, but, like, I never got to watch that, right? I definitely never got to see the process.
It's kinda like, why don't we teach kids in high school how to file their taxes, right? It's like the most bare minimum to survive. The stuff you go to jail for if you don't know, maybe we should teach people that.
So it's kinda like, if we weren't taught that, we really... It's funny, you also see all these students, they come out of dental school, and they're so excited. They're so pumped to go practice dentistry.
You know, there's probably a couple that are dreading it, but, like, the vast majority are excited to go out there. Now, you talk to that same dentist 10 years later, 20 years later, and I see a completely different picture. You see this tainted picture, where they're just mad about something or another, and you just go, and the one that I hate the most is they will literally say something like, if I could go back and tell myself to not go into dentistry, I would do it, or I would definitely tell my kid not to go into dentistry.
And it just blows my mind, because I go, what the hell other profession? Can you get paid what we get paid? And get to interact with new people every single day, do something different every single day.
Where is the grass greener? So why are they disenfranchised? What happened along the way?
They're still practicing dentistry. It's everything they wanted to do. It's the business crap in between that they didn't know about.
Nobody told them. Nobody gave them a heads up. So they didn't go in eyes wide open.
But then at the same time, they find out that 60 to 70% of their day is the business stuff, and the cool stuff that they wanted to do, they don't get to do a lot of it. So the thing that I'm excited about most, Matt, is that I'm going to take all that crap away. We're going to remove it.
Even if we get to only take 99.9% of it, then it will be on us to call out the exceptions. We'll put it in what we call an operations inbox. You're going to walk in.
You're going to see all the cool stuff that I did. And then I'm going to call out the 12 things where the human in the loop needs to take care of it and approve it, or whatever it might be, depending on the regulatory stuff. So either they're going to see more patients, they're going to be happier in their day-to-day job, by the way, everybody in the practice, right?
Front desk, assistant, hygienist, doctor, everybody's going to be pumped. It's going to be this kind of like, I've just got done telling somebody, we are coming up on the golden age of dentistry. And I truly believe that.
Everybody's going to be really, really freaking happy. Look, you could call that, I'm also going to make more money, I'm going to be more financially sound, whatever might be. Fantastic.
I think it's a byproduct. But talk about just enjoying your profession again. That's, if I can walk away and say that that was part of my legacy, I'm good to go.
Dude, that's awesome. I love that. Yeah, that's a huge win, right?
Of being able to give people back joy. Joy and work is hugely important, right? From everything we know, especially in health care, right?
Like it's just, it really is, we all get into this for the right reasons generally. And at some point, you know, burnout is real. And, you know, those things happen.
So, if we can give people back some of that joy, to then, you know, interact with their team and their staff and their kids and, you know, whatever, in a better and more real way.
Yeah, go to Vegas, take the team to Vegas, right?
There you go.
Like we used to back in the day. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, just like Wrexham, you know, they win promotion, they take the team to Vegas, right?
There you go, done.
Cool, well, talking about legacy, let's move on, like, you know, people know you, right? And they've seen you and they've interacted with you and whatever. But one of the things that, you know, we always try to do on Kinda Different is, it's like dig a little deeper, right?
Like, what makes Ryan tick? You know, what are the things that you're excited about as a human, as a person, not just as a, you know, chief strategy and clinical officer, Henry Schein One. So one of the things, you know, I'm a huge music fan, reading fan, you know, whatever.
One of the things that I always just like to hear is, like, what people are reading or listening to and, you know, what's kind of, like, being interesting to you outside of work or whatever right now.
Yeah, it's funny. So I've got a little girl now. So she's just over 15 months old, Aurora.
So she's toddling and doing her thing. So a majority of my time goes to that. So it's interesting.
I don't know about anybody else, but, you know, I think when you're part of a startup, you have this, like, existential worry about legacy, right? Maybe it's just the feeling of dying every single day, you know, like, and, like, always running out of money or whatever that might be that puts that in your DNA. And look, even at Henry Schein One, where obviously, you know, we're doing just fine, I still feel it, right?
I still feel like I could get hit by a bus tomorrow. And, you know, I'm not gonna lie, my daughter makes me feel better about that because, like, look, I just gotta, you know, have her feeling good and I'll be good to go. But at the same time, like, I look at it, and a lot of people always walk up to me, and, you know, they ask about my background, whatever it might be.
And what I usually get to is I usually get to, I'm an orthodontist. And they always do this, like, thing where they look at me, funny. And if they know how an orthodontist's life is, they're like, why are you doing what you're doing?
You could be living the good life, chill, you know, like, I always joke around, because I know orthodontists work really hard, and in fact, they see more patients a day than anybody else. But, like, there's a reason we all practice till we're, like, 90, because our backs don't go out, right? It's like, our fingers get really, maybe our fingers get authorized, because we say, hey, assistant, do this, right?
But that's where we're at, and that's our big joke, is orthodontists. But, you know, outside of that, they go, why are you doing what you're doing? And I honestly feel like, and this is the kind of stuff that I get into, I honestly feel like, if I can do one of two things, one, I can make it so, again, that transparency happens in a practice, so one, we become RCM experts without being RCM experts, two, we bring back the joy of being a dentist.
Like you said it, that's literally going to be Henry Schein One's new thing is literally we're out there fighting for you daily, and I want people to believe this because we actually are, we're fighting on behalf of dentists to bring back the joy of dentistry, and we can actually call it restore the joy of dentistry, right? A little hint to the restore, right?
Yeah, exactly. A little dentist joke.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Now, on the other side of it, I also am out there for my family, too, because when was the last time you went into a doctor's office, period, and understood what was going on?
Truly.
Truly understood what your insurance was going to reimburse. Truly understood and believed in what the doctor was telling you, right? Or are you like, look, I'm going to go write the chat TPT and check everything that guy or gal just said, you know?
Like, that's where we're at in the society. Imagine sitting chair side as a patient and truly trusting what the doctor is saying and saying yes to it and getting your treatment done. You know?
Like, don't get me wrong, there's still patients out there that do that, but I want to feel comfortable as a patient too.
100%.
And so, I think that you can actually get two birds with one stone on this thing. So, that's the kind of stuff that I'm really focusing on. And the other side of it is just I'm, like, really getting into the AI vibe, coding side of things.
So, you guys will get to see my treatment presenter coming out soon, and also medical claims. I've actually been getting really big into the medical claim side of things. I think we're going to do a lot more medical insurance billing because LLMs, turns out, they are really good at coding, and you don't have to pay $150,000 a year coder for medical claims anymore.
Cool. Love it. So, yeah, love some of like, you just, yeah, like where your interest is taking you and like how that's impacting your work too.
And, you know, we would be remiss probably if we didn't talk about the fact that it is October 9th and it's, you know, basketball season. I was just in Indianapolis with you last week, and the Pacers are coming back. Seems like, you know, you're, I got my pregame on Saturday, man.
Yeah, I got my season tics and look, we let New York get one, you know, we took a year off and they could make it, you know, all the way to the finals. And, you know, we'll see how New York does when their arch nemesis is actually healthy.
There you go. No one will ever forget the Reggie Miller, you know, nine points and seven seconds or whatever it was, right? That's right.
There we go.
Yeah. What do you think? How do you think Tyrese is going to be this year?
What's your prediction?
Look, he looked good. I only got to see him once when they went to over to Iowa to play his alma mater and Caitlin was there as well. And look, we were playing the Ant Man and that's a good team and we won, you know, and they played, everybody played the whole time.
I don't think these guys like to lose. I don't think this is next to business. It's like Apollo.
I think it's more like an Apollo Creed Russia, you know, the Russian giant kind of thing out there. So I liked how they looked, you know, Tyrese put up over 20. Look, and I think the other thing that I liked about this one is they were back to that team dynamic where like 10 people put up 15 points.
And that's, you know, really obviously I'm over exaggerating, but like that's what we're seeing happen again. And I just love watching that team basketball more than like, you know, one guy going out and having 50, you know?
Totally. Play the right way, you know? Like I could watch Jokic play every day, right?
And it's like he always makes the right pass. Doesn't matter who it is, right? Like the ball is going to get their hands.
And you're like, cool, that's the right way to play. It's fun to watch that.
Absolutely, man.
All right, so let's talk about making dental care more human, kind of talked about innovation, talked a little bit about you. Let's talk about making dental care more human. I think one of the interesting things about like where this world can kind of go as, as we, as AI especially does a good job of holding all of those things.
You mentioned 25 APIs at one time and whatever, right? Like it's holding so much at one time. And so when we think about the PMS, right?
It's like production, collections, claims, appointments, you know, like all of those things. But one of the things that I don't think it understands is like what, and obviously something that we care deeply about is like, what's happening from the patient's perspective? And, you know, I was at ADSO in June in Chicago at the Henry Schein Breakfast there, and some of the questions from the DSO leaders, you know, that were there were talking specifically about kind of coaching and whatnot.
So we can understand all of those other pieces, right? But there's still that human element of like, hey, you got to take this provider, you got to take this team, you know, clinical team, and they're going to have to work with this patient. And so how do you know, how do you think about kind of like, hey, how do we bring that patient perspective into those teams and help them understand the psychology and, you know, like just those different pieces of what actually gets people from treatment plan acceptance to treatment plan completion?
Yeah. So this is where I think you're going to get some big moves by AI. Now you're going to have to get adoption by the office.
So it's kind of like the first step of this is admitting that we have a problem. Okay. So that's going to be the hardest part.
It really will, because I talk to a lot of doctors, and they're like, yeah, man, I have 100% treatment acceptance, and my patients love me, and I'm just like, probably not, but hey, you know what, maybe you're the one dentist in the world that has that. That's fantastic. So where AI is going to come in as, and it's interesting, we're going to kind of shoehorn it in with things like ambient listening for notes and perio charting.
So in the future, unless you really like to take hand notes, then you probably won't get these benefits, okay? Which I still don't know a single doctor that loves to spend two hours at the end of their day taking their notes, which are terrible notes because you should have been doing a chair side at the time, right?
Yep.
So most people are going to start to sit down with the patient, start the patient interaction. Ambient listening is either through like an Alexa device or like a little microphone on their lapel is going to listen to them. And at the end, it's going to put the notes and it's going to do a pair of charting in their exact format, exactly how they want it, and then they're never going to think about it again.
The other thing that they're not going to think about is that it's also, eventually, if they want it, they can turn this off, going to give them feedback on their interaction with their patient. It's going to listen to, we've been doing this on phone calls for, I think since the 80s, you can get what's called sentiment analysis, right? Was the patient happy?
Were they pissed? Whatever it might be. And you've been helping remediate or coach front office staff how to do better.
Well, turns out we're going to do this with providers now as well. Assistance, whatever it might be. So, we can literally look at how the interaction went.
We can make suggestions. Hey, if you would have positioned it this way, like you have in the past, you would have sold more X, Y, and Z. They would have accepted more treatment.
They would have said yes to their treatment. They would have understood better. So, what's cool is we not only have ambient listening, we're now actually enabling ambient coaching.
So, you don't do this chair side, right? You don't do this live while you're sitting there with the patient going, right? Here's how I should say this, right?
It's something you would do in post. Now, I wouldn't be surprised if this is embraced more on the DSO side of things, right? Because they'll look at this and go, wow, I believe in coaching, I believe in education.
But this is something where I encourage the single location, multi-practice doc, single doctor offices to learn something new. Because when I had started Simplify, right? My startup, before I came to Henry Schein One, I used to just think the way that I sold was just a natural thing and there really wasn't anything to be learned.
When you truly meet a sales artist, you go, there's ways to loop, there's ways to get three yeses. And like there's these other little things that it unlocks it. And when you hear it work and you see it work in the real world, you're like, oh my god, we are simple machines that can be influenced and we should all learn these techniques and most of us don't have time to read 80 books on this stuff.
But for the salespeople that did, they're just unbelievable at it. Well, now with ambient listening and coaching, we can help our patients embrace more of our treatment and communicate with them better.
Yeah, that's really good. Yeah, I think that, to that point of, we've all heard calls for a long time of, this is going to be recorded for training and coaching, but for some reason, it hasn't happened in doctors' offices, and that's changing for sure. I do love the idea from, I coach my son's soccer team and whatever, and one of the things we do after even a lot of drills, but certainly at the end of every training is like, hey, what's one thing you did well?
What's one thing you could do better? That kind of like QI mindset of like, hey, I'm always trying to get better. I think sometimes we've missed out on dentistry because there's a billion things going on and whatever, and hopefully some of the technology that's coming can help take some of that off the plate so that the self-reflection and the like, hey, what could I do better tomorrow?
Is more an opportunity for us to spend that five minutes and think about it, right? Because that really will make a huge impact.
Who's gonna tell the boss as an assistant or hygienist, hey, maybe you should go about it this way. Like, nobody's gonna do that. They all think it, though, by the way.
Everybody's got their opinion on how people approach things. But turns out, it's not that fun to tell your boss that kind of stuff, right? So, you know, we, I remember when I was an assistant, like, I laughed at the terrible jokes.
I did my thing, right? Like, we all do that with the boss, but like, this is AI. So, that's why I say, like, step back, embrace the learning, and maybe you've been doing it wrong or in a slightly modified way for the last 20 years.
That's okay. Like, I always tell people, I know people have been golfing for 25 years and they still suck at it. So, it doesn't mean that, like, time just doesn't equal good.
So, as a doctor, look, just embrace the new and see how it feels. If not, turn it off.
Love it. Last question. You earlier mentioned, and you know, like, hey, like, I want this as a patient, right?
We all are patients in various ways, whether that's going to the dentist or the doctor or whatever. What's one thing that you feel like when you go, like, it's pretty easy to point out like bad interactions, where you're like, oh, this person said this and it didn't go well or whatever. What's one thing that a dentist or a doctor does for you, your family, whoever it is, where you're like, I love that.
That immediately builds trust with me. That's something that I latch on to as a patient. What would you say for that?
I like when the doctor knows me. That's a big piece. I like when they walk in the room and they're like, hey, Ryan, how's it going?
Oh, my gosh, she's grown up so much since I've seen her last time. Didn't you guys, weren't you guys heading to this concert last time? How'd that go?
The goofy small stuff. Maybe it's the apple in me that coming from that, we used to have this surprise and delight concept. They literally put it into all their products and all their interactions.
I don't know if you've ever noticed it. If you ever get your AirPods inscribed on the case or something like that, the first time you tap it on your phone, you know how it comes up and it spins? It has the inscription on it.
Right? They didn't have to do that. It could have just been a regular AirPod case, but it's my AirPod case.
Oh, my God, I see a 3D representation of it. So, it's these little things that I really love in those interactions. I also really appreciate knowing that everything was done at the first time, because I think we've all got that bill in the mail two months later, like, what the shit?
You know, $300. Yeah, yeah. I thought it was free, you know?
We all walk out of the doctor thing and it's free. This is great. My insurance is fantastic.
You know, like $300 insurance company, right? It's this is that, or even worse, doctor. I'm not paying.
I'm never going back to that doctor again. And because of certain laws, they can't come after me, right? Like, these are the kinds of things that I appreciate when it goes right.
It's rare, by the way. It's extremely rare. So, you know, I still don't think a single doctor has the same interaction with a patient like Uber does.
You know how you like get into Uber? You get out of Uber. If you want to tip them, it kind of asks you to tip them next time.
You know, they don't really care about that time. It's just the payment happened. That's where we want that.
We want that invisible interaction financially with the pay, with the doctor. It's kind of one of the big things we're going for.
Yeah, I like it. Yeah, I mean, certainly that price transparency we see in the data, right, is a huge struggle for so many dentists. And it's not easy, right?
But hopefully, some of the things that you guys are working on and some of the things that we've been talking about today will make that ever better for patients. Because, yeah, we all certainly want to know, hey, you know, no one likes going up to the register and being like, oh, well, I thought this was going to cost $5, and now it's going to cost $10, right? Even if it's $5 difference, what you have in that expectation from the first moment makes a difference, right?
And so I feel like that builds trust.
Imagine you're checking out on Amazon. They say, I think it's going to be $68. You'd be like, boy, that's probably not good.
I guarantee it's going to be more. And we go, well, why didn't they say yes to my treatment? It's because all day long we say, I think it's going to be this.
And the other thing that's interesting is that the more I got down into it, like there's that pricing transparency concept. I don't think doctors purposefully hold prices back. That would be stupid to do.
I think it's the enablement of pricing transparency. It's the how do I make it so they can even show a price? Because right now they can't.
So I don't know if there's a better term for it or not, but it's one of those things where I think maybe enablement of pricing transparency is the closest we can get. But that's really, if we can pull that off, it'd be good for just health, right?
For everyone. It'd be good for everyone's mental state when they walk into their doctor's office, right?
Yeah.
Sweet, man. Well, hey, I really appreciate these conversations. I think people are going to be excited to hear what you're working on and how you guys are continuing to lead in some of these ways, which is pretty cool.
If they want to find out more, like I said, I know you've been on pods recently and you guys have your own podcasts and all of these different pieces. But if you were going to direct someone to like, hey, here's where I would go right now to learn more about some of the things we've talked about today or what we're working on, Henry Schein One, where would you tell them to go?
Yeah, I mean, look, henryscheinone.com, dentrix.com, dentrixascend.com, you get to pick your poison on that one. So come check us out. Look, I always tell people it's not your daddy's dentrix.
So we're making big moves over here now, and especially with Ascend in the cloud. And if you're not in the cloud yet, it used to be like, look, what's the difference between cloud, what's the difference between on-prem? The agents are coming and guess what?
They're going to light those servers on fire. So eventually, you're gonna want to put stuff in the cloud. And also, I think memory costs like 100 grand now or something, right?
So you don't want that stuff anymore. But otherwise, yeah, check me out on LinkedIn. That's always where I'm at.
And would love to chat.
Dude, thanks for taking the time today. We really appreciate it. I don't, you know, I'm a Nuggets fan, so we're on the other side, so I can appreciate the Pacers basketball go Pacers as we head into fall.
So I appreciate you, man, and look forward to keep the conversation going in the future.
Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

‍