Is there a Chatbot in Your Patients’ Future?

Is there a Chatbot in Your Patients’ Future?

Perhaps, in time, dentists will receive a valuable assist from this AI device.

The question occurred to Mason while a junior at JFK High School in Bellmore, Nassau County, Long Island—he’s now a senior—and enrolled in an AP Research class. His attempt to answer the question is chronicled in a well-researched paper entitled “Patient Perceptions on Generative AI: Chatbots in Postoperative Dental Care.” https://sites.google.com/nyu. edu/gen-ai-postop

The young author conducted a review of literature on the subject and elicited responses from volunteers to dental-specific vignettes. He found, he said, that while dental patients were open to the idea of using generative AI chatbots in postoperative dental care, and expressed satisfaction with a single use of the technology, they were more reluctant to use it again or recommend its use to others. This led him to conclude that “despite positive, intrinsic experiences, people are reluctant to proceed with the technology in the future,” possibly, he reasoned, because they questioned the validity of chatbot responses and preferred continued input from their health care providers.

Mason’s paper, according to his father, received high praise from his teachers and considerable interest from his classmates. What it didn’t do is pique Mason’s interest in a career in health care. Rather, he’s on a business track as he weighs his college options.

Mark Schlesinger, senior clinical support director for Dental 365 and former clinical assistant professor at NYU College of Dentistry, is not without a dental compatriot in his family. His daughter, Mason’s older sister, is a first-year dental student at NYU.