Dr. Jen Derse explains that Pearl's Oral Health Index reveals significant diagnostic gaps in dental practices, with top performers diagnosing roughly 12 teeth per new patient exam compared to just 3 in the lowest percentile, and suggests AI tools combined with team training and patient engagement can help close these blind spots before 2027.
- Pearl's Oral Health Index shows a fourfold gap between lowest and highest percentile practices in diagnostic treatment planning per new patient exam.
- Young adults have far more untreated decay (about 50%) compared to older adults (roughly 30%), suggesting potential diagnostic or prevention gaps.
- Low diagnostic scores often stem from rushed exams or lack of team knowledge, fixable through continuing education rather than new tools alone.
- Empowering the entire dental team to document concerns and point out potential issues improves diagnostic outcomes, even where state law limits non-dentist diagnosis.
What if the biggest gap in your practice isn’t what you treat but what you never notice? Dr. Jen Derse says a new benchmark suggests that gap may be wider than many dentists think.
In this episode of The DrBicuspid.com Podcast, host Kevin Henry talks with Derse, a dentist of more than 20 years who owned a private practice for about 15, served as a chief clinical director overseeing roughly 40 practices in a dental service organization (DSO), and now works as a practice coach and consultant. They discuss Pearl’s Oral Health Index and what it can tell practices about their diagnostic blind spots.
Released this past summer, the index draws on x-rays from private practices and DSOs across all states and the UK, and gives dentists a benchmark, almost a key performance indicator, to measure themselves against. Derse acknowledges that Pearl is a vendor and that some dentists struggle with AI findings they don’t agree with. Her view is that AI is “spell check for your diagnostics.”
Dr. Jen Derse.
Two findings stood out to her. As she recalls it, practices in the lowest 10th percentile for diagnostics treatment planned about three teeth per new patient exam compared with roughly 12 or more in the highest percentile, a gap of about fourfold.
Derse also recalls that young adults showed far more untreated decay than older adults, about half versus roughly 30% for baby boomers. She says the reasons deserve more study, noting that older adults’ decay may simply have been treated already, with crowns that last decades.
A low score, Derse says, could mean exams are rushed or that a team doesn’t know what to look for, and the fix may be a continuing education course as much as a new tool.
She also urges doctors to empower the whole team. She describes a practice where AI highlighted decay that both the doctor and the hygienist missed, and the patient eventually lost the tooth. Even where state law keeps non-dentists from diagnosing, she says, team members can point things out and document their concerns.
Henry plays devil’s advocate on how hard it is to admit a tool caught something a clinician missed. Derse says it takes vulnerability and notes that at a recent course with about 150 attendees, only one practice was using AI.
Her magic wand for 2027: practices that use photos, x-rays, and AI to bring patients into the decision and let them make more of the choices themselves.
Derse can be reached through her website as well as through social media.
Learn more in the podcast below.
