by Chris Hammond, DDS
With an array of digital technology emerging onto the dental market, practices are becoming more efficient and ultimately more profitable. Modern dental offices are equipped with everything digital from intraoral photography to digital radiographs. One of the most valuable and overlooked technologies for a dental practice is voice-activated software.
Today’s voice-activation applications have evolved into user-friendly devices that help practitioners input periodontal readings of depths, suppuration, bleeding points, as well as soft-tissue exam findings directly into patient records. These applications make it easier to retrieve and create graphic analysis from the voice integration of that information for patient education and for documentation.
Even at the time of their introduction, voice-activated applications were found to be effective tools. Unlike older versions of voice-activation applications, however, modern generations have evolved into more user-friendly devices that are highly effective and programmed to be specific for the sounds they hear. And with dental-specific software on the market, voice-activation applications have extensive vocabulary databases that recognize dental terminology and make clinical transcription simple.
Implementing this new technology into modern dental practices is also becoming easier. The required voice “training” used to be tedious and required dedication of time and practice resources. Now, a dental hygienist or dentist can train a computer to recognize his or her voice in just a few minutes. The time and overhead investment for installation and training is reasonable, and the learning curve required to achieve full implementation is short.
Practices that have incorporated this kind of technology have found that they spend their time more efficiently and that their clinical notes are more accurate and up-to-date. Also, practices save money by eliminating the cost of hiring someone to transcribe clinical notes. A doctor can easily speak into a microphone and record clinical notes in about half the time than previously needed.
Dental practitioners can benefit from hands-free charting and clinical transcribing. Two products available to the dental market include DENTRIX Voice, a perio and charting application, and DENTRIX Dictation. Both applications are effective and accurate voice-activated applications. While DENTRIX Voice eliminates the need for an assistant and cross-contamination concerns when writing numbers, DENTRIX Dictation frees up time from transcribing clinical notes. Both applications use voice commands that leverage word recognition so that users can continue examinations or other tasks while transcribing notes or patient charting. Numeric charting in the Perio Chart module is also accurate, with precision and control that is unprecedented in dental offices, all while operators speak in normal voices, at a normal speed.
As technology continues to advance, modern dental offices will see more types of voice activation in relation to patient records. Additional technology such as digital radiographs and photographs of patients may be done with voice activation and will show effective results by using voice to command the capture and storage of images in patient records. As we see voice activation and integration continue to evolve, it will be an area of this integrated field that will be one of the fastest growing and changing areas of any of the new technologies coming to the marketplace. ■
Chris Hammond, DDS
Dr. Chris Hammond received his dental degree at Oregon Health Sciences University in 1996. He has a general practice in Provo, Utah. He lectures and teaches nationally with The Hornbrook Group. He may be reached by e-mail at [email protected].
