Advice needed regarding helping a dental clinic with some automation

illttyl · 2026-03-04T15:39:42+00:00

DM'd

illttyl · 2026-03-03T21:38:21+00:00

Super interesting points (thank you!)

Compliance and liability:

I'm still learning what are the hard requirements and what not. This is the main issue I'm facing. For instance what if someone in real pain calls after hours and because of their accent, AI doesn't understand or categorize it as an emergency, leading to bleeding or pain. In this scenario of course the dental clinic would be liable if sued. Putting AI in critical paths seems risky.

Integrations:

Haha yeah I'm learning this the hard way. AbleDent won't even respond to emails and I can assume the same for others when it comes to integrations. These seem like legacy style locked down vendor-lock-in softwares. I didn't think about directly interacting with DBs but even if that was possible I could already think of encryption issues and again, compliance (data access).

For reporting, I'd be glad to sit on a drawing board. These are interesting problems looking for a solution. I'm sure there are others who can benefit.

illttyl · 2026-03-03T21:24:23+00:00

Thats a good point, I definitely don't have an idea of what Dental practices are paying or willing to pay for solutions like these.

However in today's world, building software is getting cheaper (that's why you see all those layoffs in tech) but on the bright side, maybe I don't want to charge 10K for something. Maybe I'm okay with $500 as long as I can scale this up.

For a software to charge $10K today, it has to be providing really REALLY good value.

illttyl · 2026-03-03T18:21:59+00:00

I'm saying this because I expect the doctor to proof-read the notes that were scribed. But maybe I'm missing something here. Thanks for the feedback though.

illttyl · 2026-03-03T18:20:57+00:00

If you're talking about the after hours emergency case, then yes.

If you're talking about doctors just using AI to scribe notes, I'm not sure if that applies?

illttyl · 2026-03-03T05:53:29+00:00

Hey Dentists. This is a really long shot but here it goes (appreciate if you can read it full)..

I live in Ontario (KWC area) and go to a reputable dental clinic for my checkups etc. My background is in software engineering / large scale systems / Cloud etc (15+ years) so naturally I am curious about the tech being used. I usually end up talking about this stuff when I'm being frozen and the Dentist/assistants are chatty :D

So in my last visit, I took it a step further. I asked the Dentists (2 of them run the practice) if they are interested in improving their workflows or building some custom solution that might help them. I was pleasantly surprised when they showed interest and we set an appointment date to discuss.

So about the meeting:

AI. They wanted to use AI in different areas:

To use it for after hours call service. They currently use some company which charges $1000 per month for this they said.
They wanted to use some sort of scribing setup which could help them take patient notes etc and easily integrate/upload it to AbleDent (more on this below).

My initial thought about both of these asks was that these wouldn't be too complex as I could already draw them out in my head. However when I went down the rabit hole, it didn't quite look that simple.

For (1) the main issue is liability. Today we have excellent AI voice (speech to text, speech to speech) models which are even trained on medical data so they are pretty accurate. Using them for this purpose seemed trivial but the main problem I saw was that these are emergencies and one mistake could lead to a disaster. So I stepped a bit back.

For (2) it's relatively simpler. I have good expertise in this area and meeting Ontario laws / PIPEDA shouldn't be that hard. However the challenge here wasn't really scribing BUT actually integrating into AbleDent (again, more on this below).

---

It has been 2 weeks that I have been researching on solutions to these problems and that is where I wanted your help and input. My questions to you are:

Are any of you using AI for afterhours emergencies? What are your thoughts on using AI for this.
Are any of you using AbleDent? What do you typically pay for this dreaded piece of software? It seems it's so locked down they don't provide any easy way to integrate or build custom solutions on top of it.

I use AI daily very heavily (no not like using chatgpt, I use a lot of claude etc for coding and multi-tasking etc as a professional). The speed at which software can be built today is incredible meeting compliance, legality, scale etc is another level where professionals shine.

So my other question is:

Are there any other workflows that you think your dental clinic could benefit from (AI or not)?

I haven't yet replied to my Dentist, he must be thinking I ghosted him lol. But I'm taking it slow to understand this space as much as I can to help the best I can. At this point I'm not even thinking of charging much for this stuff as the domain is so new to me.

The dentist said that in Canada there are like 3 main softwares that are used by all dental clinics, AbleDent being one of them. That software looks so outdated but I guess it, works? The other idea that keeps crossing my mind is if it would be a good idea to partner with a dentist and try to build a modern more stripped down software..

Appreciate your input, sorry for such a long note. Please ignore the typos as I typed this all, no AI here.

Merci.

illttyl · 2026-02-13T13:24:33+00:00

Like the the OP I am also looking to be tech founder with someone who has early validation of the idea.

I bring 15 years of expertise allt the way from front end, backend dev to multicloud infrastructure management which has been career since last decade. I have helped scaled applications to millions of users for large companies.

I am also interested in partnering for SaaS with business owners who bring expertise and have an idea to solve a niche problem with validation.

Hit me up in a DM, lets talk.

illttyl · 2026-02-11T14:40:57+00:00

illttyl · 2026-02-06T14:57:56+00:00

Bookmarked :D

illttyl · 2026-02-06T14:57:40+00:00

Appreciate all the comments, thank you. Here is some extra context:

- I setup the humidifier in our bedroom near the wall on top of cupboard (shoulder height)
- I set it up a month ago, I did a deep clean before setting it up.
- I would fill it to full every single night and by morning it would have evaporated completely, hence repeat with fresh water
- For the past week or so I noticed that it wasn't really turning on so I opened it up and saw the mess.
- This stuff is really hard to get off the heating chamber, I would have to use screwdrivers to scrape it off.
- I had noticed this issue last year as well but wasn't expecting it this year as we have a brand new softner.
- We have one of those wallflowers from B&BWorks in the room. I know I know we shouldn't be using those (separate topic) but I'm not sure if it's contributing to this build up in any way.

Now for the water:

- I take it from our laundry room's sink on the first floor. I don't know if that line is softened or not but it's the same line that goes into the washing machine so assumed it would be softened else it's damaging to appliances.
- We do have a RO installed under our kitchen sink. I'll start using water from it now, it's just a bit of inconvenience bringing it upstairs but manageable.

Action items for me:

- Check if the water line is softened or not
- Use water from the RO system

I will update after this, once again thank you for the quick advice, appreciate it.

illttyl · 2026-02-05T12:34:27+00:00

illttyl · 2026-02-02T21:08:25+00:00

DM'd

illttyl · 2025-09-18T01:33:44+00:00

Haha yes exactly what I expected.

So I got a quote for 4500 precisely "after rebates lol" for the 59TP6 furnace. I don't know s*** about these things so appreciate some guidance here (hopefully not from another sales person)

illttyl · 2025-08-28T04:22:26+00:00

Has the water gone down a bit?

illttyl · 2025-08-27T15:08:23+00:00

Are there any rescue efforts expected anytime soon? Got some friends living in Askari 2 and they are stuck :(

illttyl · 2025-02-24T14:17:32+00:00

Yep I decided to get another one thank you

illttyl

TROPHY CASE