Skip to main content

Sometimes at the end of a dental appointment, the dentist shows you a X-ray, points to an unremarkable spot on it and explains why it means you need a particular procedure. And many of us just nod along, with zero idea of what, exactly, it is we’re looking at.

This is one reason, suggests Overjet CEO Wardah Inam, why patients opt out of recommended dental procedures more than half the time. “Patient’s don’t accept them because they don’t understand what the dentist is saying,” she said.

Her company hopes to change this with the commercial launch of its smart imaging system, Iris. This system uses the company’s AI platform, which has been trained on millions of dental images, to sharpen blurry X-ray images and add color and other visualizations to more clearly highlight potential dental health issues.

“We see these as smart imaging,” Inam, 37, said. “It doesn’t just capture images, it understands the images it’s capturing and applies AI findings based on that.”

Overjet was established in 2018, spinning out of the Harvard Innovation Labs with a team of computer scientists and dentists. Its first product focus was on developing AI tools to assist dentists in diagnosing issues with their patients. The company has so far raised over $134 million in investment from firms like General Catalyst and Insight Partners and is valued at $550 million. Its products are used by thousands of dentists around the country, Inam said.

Overjet received its first FDA clearance in 2021 for software that takes bone measurements to assess gum disease. More clearances followed: in 2022, the FDA cleared its software to detect and outline cavities found in X-rays and then it received another clearance to detect hardened plaque. In 2023, it cleared its AI system to detect a particular sign of root canal infection. In 2024, the regulatory agency cleared its cavity detection software for use with children, cleared its automated dental charting system and in September of this year cleared software to enhance dental images with AI. That enhancement software is at the heart of Iris, which combines all of the company’s AI capabilities, using both X-rays and photos to spot issues.

The visualizations Iris generates don’t just help dentists make the right diagnosis and treatment, it also helps patients understand them better so they’re more likely to move forward with a treatment plan. “Patients don’t understand the diagnosis that a dentist is providing,” Inam said. Being able to provide an image that highlights cavities in red or shows measurements of bone loss, she said, “is much easier for patients to understand than just someone saying you have a disease.”


InnovationRx is your weekly digest of healthcare news. To get it in your inbox every Wednesday, subscribe here.


Overjet’s other AI products are already in use in over 2000 clinics around the country, and it’s planning to roll out Iris nationally. “We already have a waitlist,” she said, based on word-of-mouth coming from clinics who helped the company beta test the software.

The next step for the company is adding 3D-imaging capabilities to Overjet’s AI platform. This would enable it to diagnose a broader set of dental problems and add more ways for it to assist doctors and benefit patients.

“Dental AI has become a no-brainer,” Inam said. “It’s really helping dentists do their jobs more effectively and because of that, patients are getting the best care that they can.”

MORE AT FORBES

ForbesDental AI Startup Wins Second FDA Clearance To Detect Top Oral DiseasesForbesThis AI Model Could Keep Thousands Of Cancer Patients From Getting Unnecessary TreatmentsForbesGoogle DeepMind’s John Jumper On Winning The Nobel Prize And The Future Of AlphaFoldForbesSepsis Causes Over 350,000 Deaths Annually. This Lab Test Can Reduce That By A Third.


Source: www.forbes.com…