Episode #394: How AI Creates Real Leverage in Dental Practices with Maria Jackson

Narrator intro: This is the Less Insurance Dependence podcast show with my good friend Gary Tackers and myself, Naren Arulrajah,

Narrator intro: We appreciate your listenership, your time, and most of all, we appreciate your intention to reduce insurance dependence in your practice. Our goal is to provide information that will help you successfully reduce insurance dependence and convert your practice into a thriving and profitable dental practice that provides you with personal, professional and financial satisfaction.

Lester De Alwis: Welcome to Less Insurance Dependence podcast. I’m your host, Lester De Alwis, This podcast is dedicated to helping dental professionals build stronger, more profitable practices with less reliance on insurance. Today I’m thrilled to welcome Maria Jackson, founder and CEO of Dental AI Solutions and a fractional CTO. With 20 years experience clinical, across clinical hygiene DSO operations and digital transformation, Maria has trained clinicians on AI powered systems across 30 plus offices. What makes a different is that she brings a real clinic view to ai, helping teams connecting technology with daily patient care, so it actually works in practice. So in today’s episode, we title it has AI as Leverage for Independence, turning Smart Technology into Practice Freedom. So we’ll explore why insurance is often the symptom and not the disease, and where AI creates real operational leverage and what readiness looks like before you adopt these tools. If you’ve been wondering whether AI is hype or a genuine path to fee for service freedom, this conversation will give you clarity. Maria, welcome to the show. We’re so glad to have you here.

Maria Jackson: Thank you. Thank you.

Lester De Alwis: So you’ve been spent, you’ve spent, oh, I think 20 plus years in clinical, dentistry, trained dental teams on ai, and now, help practices use ai. From your view, what does the future look like for independent dental practices in an insurance driven industry?

Maria Jackson: So, I’ve been in the industry, some time in my dad used to practice mm-hmm . Oral surgery. So I’ve seen dentistry go from, dipping the radiographs all the way down to digital radiographs, intra oral scanning pictures. We’ve progressed quite a lot in dentistry. One thing that always kind of struck me was insurances was just kind of a pain, right? Like, the front desk has to sit there, call, diligent amount of hours and dedicate so much time to insurances, to not even really generally get it all right, because there’s just so many little questions that you really have to understand and know what to ask insurances so that you’re able to write everything down so that the insurance can pay it. Mm-hmm . But, I’ve realized over time with ai, that’s gonna change completely. It’s already changing. There’s a lot of startup companies, emerging, and a lot of them are dedicating their time on insurances because insurances is one of those.

Maria Jackson: Insurance is one of those sections that it just takes up so much time and you kind of have to be very technical and the people in the front desk’s, like you have to also consider there’s like a turnover rate in the industry depending on the offices, and then you have to train all over again. And sometimes, like people don’t have the experience in dentistry to really, truly understand, what they’re asking or what they need. Mm-hmm . With ai, it helps navigate and make that process so much easier. You have a lot of AI tools right now that you have bots that are calling on your behalf and they know exactly what to ask for. You also have companies that will do all that backend for you, and it’s just working in the background. So instead of the front desk being on the phone when someone’s coming in, they’re able to greet patients as they’re walking in and not be stuck on the phone.

Maria Jackson: Because those phone calls can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or two hours because they put you on hold, especially if they don’t know on the other end. So that’s another factor that you have to consider. The other end, they might, may or may not know, exactly what you’re asking for. They may just be new as well. So mm-hmm . I think the future of dentistry in dentistry, it’s going to, it’s already changing a lot and it’s gonna change even more. And I think all that lost time, it’s, it’s gonna be great because we’re gonna be able to dedicate more time to patients and be more empathetic.

Lester De Alwis: Amazing. And I think you’ve seen the evolution of everything from where you’ve seen when your dad, your dad was practicing, and now AI has, oh,

Maria Jackson: It’s amazing. I sometimes my dad doesn’t, I don’t think understand fully what I do. He’ll, huh , he’ll ask me like, what exactly do you do? He just tells people, yeah. Like, he’s in, she’s in the dental field and she works with AI and softwares, I don’t know anything else. , he doesn’t really understand it ’cause he is at a practice now, .

Lester De Alwis: Okay. So from what you’ve seen on the ground and what’s the industry getting, so what’s the industry getting wrong about why practices feel stuck on insurance and where does AI create the real leverage that lowers that dependence.

Maria Jackson: Like I said, insurance is just such a long and time consuming process and mm-hmm . I think where some offices go wrong too is there’s not a lot of training involved in the front. I guess either they hire somebody who knows what they’re doing and they hope that they can kind of just start and roll with it, or they’re, they train somebody and they hope they get it, and sometimes it clicks. And most of the time it just doesn’t. With AI tools now, it’s going to be so much easier so that people can focus on other things. Right now, the best leverage that we have with insure with AI within the insurance space is the fact that they know the exact questions. The AI is already a trained model, so as long as the models are trained specifically to all those questions, and a lot of those questions and insurances, it’s, it’s a lot of the same stuff.

Maria Jackson: So as long as those models are being trained, it’s just a robot, it’s just repeating the same thing again and again. It, and it’s more consistent too. Whereas sometimes, like, even though we have sheets in the front and mm-hmm . Someone is going, row by row, but sometimes there’s certain situations that you may need to ask other questions that you may not consider or think of because you just wanna get out of the phone. Whereas with ai, it’s very consistent across the board, and as long as the models are trained, you’re always gonna get a consistent answer on the other end.

Lester De Alwis: Yeah. Yeah. And I, like you said, I think leverage is the key word here. It’s the right word. I think there are some practices that, under utilize ai and basically they don’t leverage it, in maximum to the maximum. Yeah. So now when, like, now to this follow up question. Now when practices integrate ai, there are some practices that integrate it beautifully. There is no struggle when there are other practices that still struggle. So before ENTs invest in AI as a part for fee, for fee for service growth, what does readiness actually look like culturally, operationally, and clinically?

Maria Jackson: I think, the differences between those practices that integrate AI really well versus the other ones, some practices will, are going to want to do everything at once. There’s a lot of AI software out there’s imaging software, there’s, for insurances, there’s automated perio charting. There’s a lot of different categories, and I think some offices are gonna want to maybe integrate two or three at the same time. And I think that’s not a good idea because with everything, and like anything in life, it just takes time to be able to, go through the process, learn it, and actually make it a habit. But then also having a cheerleader in the office. Someone who is going to keep everyone accountable to make sure that they’re following through, that everybody’s aligned properly. More often than not, dentists will go to meetings and they get very excited with all the technology out there, and they bring everything back and they just don’t follow through, right?

Maria Jackson: They just expect their team to just kind of go for it. And it’s just, it doesn’t work that way. There has to be someone allocated, whether that be the dentist or an office manager, or maybe a lead assistant or a lead hygienist, someone who’s gonna really hold, like I said, hold everyone accountable, organize everything, have systems in place. And I think that’s another reason why a lot of the DSOs, like the big organizations are more successful because they do have those systems in place and it’s easier for them to kind of follow through. And usually they have, they bring in one pilot on mm-hmm . They adapt it, they adopt it, and they bring something else on. They, I’ve never been in a DSO and I’ve, I’ve practiced in DSOs most of my career where they bring on so much that it’s just so overwhelming for the team. And there’s usually somebody e whether that is a hygiene coordinator or an office manager who’s just consistently asking about, those, end steps. Like are we using it? Have we allocated which patients throughout the day, like in the schedule, we’re going to actually use this. So it’s about implementing maybe one patient at a time and then just making it a habit and doing it across the board.

Lester De Alwis: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so what you’ve been describing is really why so many practice owners stay stuck is that either they send something needs to shift or, but the path forward is isn’t clear. So if anyone listening in, is sitting with that feeling, the team at Echo Marketing, who is, who is the sponsor of this podcast, who’s sponsoring this episode, is offering a complimentary marketing strategy meeting or a practice audit at lessinsurancedependence.com/msm. It’s a great place to start mapping that part for you to understand where your online visibility stands. So Maria, I want you to push, on something deeper. Now, a lot of dentists, hear AI and think, it’s replacement of your team members or less human connection, but your work helps hygienists move into a tech focused role. Can AI actually strengthen team culture and make a fee for service model more defensible?

Maria Jackson: Oh, yeah. Ai is not really there to replace team members. You still need that empathy and that human touch to everything. Mm-hmm . Whether that is imaging, you still need a doctor who’s going to make that decision, whether or not they’re gonna move forward with whatever the AI’s telling them. Like, I’m, I’m talking more about like imaging at this point, but yeah, AI is there to strengthen, the case and it’s there to help the office run smoother, and it’s, it’s going to help lessen the back and forth with the insurances. Mm-hmm. A lot of times, we submit to insurance, we do, we think we’re doing everything we have to on our end, but then insurance kicks back and says, oh, you’re missing this in your notes, or How long did the procedure take? Or how, so that there’s a lot of back and forth with ai without AI versus with ai, it, that lessens a lot.

Maria Jackson: My, will you get some kickback? Maybe, but not as much because it’s very consistent and the models have already been trained. So I think it’s there for sure. It’s to strengthen the team culture. Not only that, everybody’s cohesive and it’s talking the same language. And what by that is, if we go back to imaging, you have team members that will from the beginning, right? Like dental assistants that will tell their patients, look, this is the imaging, this is what it’s telling you. It’s there for patient education. And now the dental hygienist comes in and they talk about the AI again and say, okay, look, this is what’s highlighting in your images. And then the doctor comes in. So if anything is making your team look more cohesive because everybody’s talking the same language and it’s more consistent. So if anything, I would say it’s there to strengthen your team culture more than anything else. And it’s there to get your office to a place to where there’s a lot of less back and forth, and you are going to end up collecting more money and doing less of the work, and you’re gonna be able to have more time with patients and have that empathy and explain to patients what AI can’t explain to them. Right. So you still need people that understand and know dentistry and can explain to patients and do it, but AI is there to just strengthen the team and help with patient education and understanding as well.

Lester De Alwis: Yeah. I think, that, actually reframes the whole conversation or the mind, the view of how we or any, like, anyone outside listening, or might be thinking AI is very com complex, or basically, they’re gonna like replace or replace team members or, replace the human connection. But I think it’s, if you look at it, if you look at in the right mindset, AI is something that will, humanize the practice or, make it more, make it more, great, or efficient, to make things better. Mm-hmm . So as this podcast is, about taking action to anyone listening in, what is the one key takeaway or one advice that you would like to give?

Maria Jackson: There’s a lot, a lot of stuff mm-hmm . That’s coming out. And I think it’s becoming very overwhelming for dentists and practices because they just don’t know where to start. Some people, and they’re gonna, some people are gonna say, you, your office should have ai, right? But the thing is too, like you wanna be able to adapt something that’s relevant to your office, that your office needs. Don’t just pick an AI software just because you just wanna be part of the trend and you wanna be relevant. Really do your research or hire somebody who does that, right? Like, I work with different people that’s what they do. They’re consultants and they listen and they look at your KPIs, they look at your metrics, they look at what your office lacks and where it needs help, and they recommend certain softwares that are go, that’s good for your office, depending on what your office needs, right? So if you don’t have a clear direction of what to buy or what to read or what to do, then hire somebody if you really wanna implement some type of AI in your, in your office so that they can help you do that, and they can help you do that efficiently and effectively. Otherwise, you’re gonna waste a lot of time and nothing’s gonna be implemented and you’re gonna waste money for no reason. So that would be my takeaway.

Lester De Alwis: Amazing. So, Maria, I know listeners might have, would like to have a chat with you. I even have, understand, how they could implement AI in your, in their practice or just have a conversation about how things can, be moving in this evolution of ai. So, what is the best way that they can reach out to you?

Maria Jackson: So, you can visit my website, it’s maria dental ai.com. There’s a lot of information there. I also help dental professionals shift from clinical roles to nonclinical roles, and I place them with different startups and different opportunities that emerge. So you can reach me there and we can set up a call and I can give you more information of what I do then.

Lester De Alwis: Amazing. So anyone listening in, if you, do want to get more details, you can also check the show notes of this episode. You can find all the details, on where you can contact Maria. Maria, thank you so much for spending your time with us today.

Maria Jackson: Thank you so much. I really appreciate you.

Lester De Alwis: So the biggest takeaway I’m walking away with is that AI isn’t about replacing your team or chasing trends. It’s about creating real leverage so you can serve patients better, free up your team and make insurance contracts a choice throughout the necessity. If you’re ready to take action, what we’ve covered today, you can schedule a complimentary practice audit, with Ekwa Marketing, lessinsurancedependence.com/msm. And if you’re looking for mentorship and you want help with coaching, you can also book a complimentary coaching strategy meeting with lessinsurancedependence.com/csm.  Now remember, the practices that win the next decade won’t be in the ones with the most contracts. They’ll be the ones that build the most leverage. Smart systems, strong teams, and the courage to design a practice on their own terms. That’s what insurance independence really looks like. Thank you for listening to the Less Insurance Defenders podcast. I am Leslie e Alvis, and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode.