Planet DDS Unveils DentalOS™ AI Agents: A New AI Workforce for Dental Operations

 

There is a constant influx of more and more news on AI and how it is impacting both clinical decision making as well as the business aspects of dentistry.  Today's post has details about a new offering from Planet DDS and how that is priming their practice management system for the better.  If you are using Planet DDS to run your practice more efficiently, be sure to read this for all the info...

Early access waitlist now open for purpose-built AI agents that connect directly to Denticon and Cloud 9.

 Planet DDS today unveiled DentalOS™ AI Agents, a new category of AI-powered workers purpose-built to operate within the dental practice management system.

 DentalOS AI Agents are intelligent, autonomous agents that live inside Denticon and Cloud 9, accessing live patient data, real schedules, and established workflows to complete operational work the way a trained team member would, at any hour, across every location.

 The first agents target front desk operations, where missed communication directly leads to lost revenue. Today, the average dental practice sees a 15% no-show rate, costing providers more than $150,000 per year in lost production—and 36% of patients who miss appointments say they simply forgot. For DSOs and multi-location groups, these gaps compound across dozens or hundreds of locations. These are solvable problems. 

 The newly announced Confirmation Agent and Scheduling Agent are designed to address these challenges systematically across organizations. But the front desk is only the starting point. Planet DDS will introduce additional AI agent roles throughout 2026 and beyond, building toward a full AI workforce spanning clinical coordination, patient communications, revenue cycle management, and more,all embedded within DentalOS.

 Denticon and Cloud 9 customers can join the early access waitlist at planetdds.com/ai-agents-early-access.

 “DSOs that are scaling face an inherent tension—more locations mean more operational complexity, more communication to manage, and more pressure on teams already stretched thin," said Eric Giesecke, CEO of Planet DDS. "We're introducing an entirely new way of using our software by providing access to an AI workforce that lives inside DentalOS, understands the full context of every patient interaction, and works alongside human teams so organizations can scale without sacrificing consistency, responsiveness, or the people who make it all work. The Confirmation and Scheduling Agents we're launching are just the beginning.”

Meet the First Two AI Agents for Dental Front Desk Operations 

Confirmation Agent automates outbound appointment confirmations within a configurable window, helping DSOs reduce no-shows and stabilize provider schedules without increasing staff workload. If a patient can't make it, the agent can reschedule the appointment during the same call using policy-controlled slot search—without creating scheduling risk. It verifies patient identity before sharing protected health information, respects consent and office hours, and writes confirmation and reschedule outcomes back into Denticon and Cloud 9 with full auditability. The Confirmation Agent has been shown to increase appointment confirmation rates by 20–50% from historic baselines, reduce no-shows by 15–30%, and save front desk teams an estimated 60–75% of hours previously spent on manual confirmation workflows.

Scheduling Agent keeps schedules full by proactively reaching out to patients from recall lists, waitlists, ASAP lists, and unscheduled treatment, then booking appointments directly into the practice management system. When cancellations occur, the agent triggers time-sensitive outreach to quickly recover open time. It reaches patients through outgoing calls and logs every interaction back into Denticon and Cloud 9, so teams maintain full visibility across locations.

"The Confirmation and Scheduling Agents protect production and reduce no-shows, which for DSOs means healthier EBITDA," said Nathan James, Chief Product Officer at Planet DDS. "And this is just the first layer. As we bring AI agents into the revenue cycle, clinical coordination, and beyond, we're building a workforce that strengthens our customers’ business at every level.”

How DentalOS AI Agents Work: 

• Real-time access to live schedules and patient records within Denticon and Cloud 9
• Independently complete front desk workflows, including appointment confirmations, rescheduling, missed call recovery, and routine patient inquiries
• Natural patient communication that follows each organization's scheduling preferences and escalation paths
• Operate simultaneously across the organization—configurable by location—while honoring each office’s working hours, holidays, and closures.
• Intelligent escalation to human staff when clinical judgment or personal attention is needed

 Organizations retain full control over timing, task scope, and escalation rules—ensuring agents operate as a seamless extension of the team.

Every DentalOS AI Agent—current and future—connects directly with Denticon and Cloud 9, cloud-based dental practice management platforms by Planet DDS, with real-time access to the same data and workflows human teams rely on every day. This shared foundation enables agents to act with full operational awareness, following each organization's scheduling rules, communication standards, and escalation paths without manual configuration for every interaction.

 It is also what makes the AI workforce scalable. As Planet DDS introduces new agents across additional operational domains, each will inherit the same data and organizational intelligence, allowing DSOs to continue expanding their AI workforce.

 Early Access Waitlist Now Open

Planet DDS is opening an early access waitlist for DentalOS AI Agents to Denticon and Cloud 9 customers. Organizations on the waitlist will be among the first to deploy the Confirmation Agent and Scheduling Agent and help shape the future of AI-powered dental operations. To join the early access waitlist or learn more, visit planetdds.com/ai-agents-early-access.

 Resources

• Learn more about DentalOS AI Agents.
• Discover Denticon Practice Management.
• Explore Cloud 9 Ortho Practice Management.
• Access the latest insights on dental technology and AI.

 About Planet DDS 

Dental software is broken. We aim to fix it. As a partner in growth for DSOs and dental groups outgrowing legacy systems and fragmented tools, Planet DDS delivers a cloud-based AI platform designed to scale alongside growing organizations. Powered by DentalOS™ with AI, Planet DDS is built on connection—connecting people, partners, and technology across an open ecosystem that includes Denticon Practice Management, Cloud 9 Ortho Practice Management, and Apteryx Cloud Imaging. Trusted by leading DSOs and emerging dental groups nationwide, Planet DDS supports more 100+ location DSOs than any other cloud-based dental practice management provider, enabling 14,500 practices and 175,000 users to move 

UMKC Announced New Degree Program - Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence

 

I'm a Kansas City guy.  Most people know that, but for those of you who didn't... you do now.  My dream was always to be a dentist so as a senior in high school I made an appointment with the admissions office to see what I needed to do to make my dream happen.  At that appointment they told me that getting an undergraduate degree from UMKC would look good on my application.  I hadn't even considered staying in KC for college, but that sealed the deal for me.

With that story being told, we now come to the actual post for today.  As regular readers know, I cover a lot on AI here.  In fact, just last week I had a post about the big announcement made by Trust AI at the Chicago MidWinter Meeting.  Let's face it, AI is impacting us everywhere from our phones to the federal government.  It is changing the way we practice and the way we interact with the world.

As a UMKC grad I get email updates from the alumni society on a regular basis and the latest one I got made a pretty cool announcement.  It seems that even my small undergraduate university is now working toward offering a degree in Artificial Intelligence.  From the newsletter:

The University of Missouri Board of Curators approved the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s plan to launch a new Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence degree this fall, pending approval from both the state and the Higher Learning Commission.

I realize that this isn't a groundbreaking announcement, but when I read it my thought was "if my small college is offering a degree program in AI, that just shows how ubiquitous it is."  There truly is no stopping this train.  Like most people I have concerns about it.  As a tech lover, I'm excited about the possibilities it unlocks, but I also am not 100% trusting in it.  

The systems make mistakes and need supervision.  It's critical that there is always "a human in the loop".  With the recent news stories about AI in the Pentagon, we definitely need people in charge of the machines.  Plain and simple, AI is a tool, but not a solution.  I consider AI to be a bit like dynamite.  You can do tremendous good with it, but you can also use it for tremendous evil.  Human supervision and control is imperative.

Trust AI Introduces "Isaac Practice OS" at Chicago MidWinter Meeting

 

For almost a year now I've been closely following the progress of Trust AI.  The company launched their dental specific LLM called Isaac last summer and it was (and continues to be) impressive. Sure you can use any LLM like Chat GPT, but Isaac is trained only in dentistry.  It has all the literature, all the terminologies, and it has been trained by specialists to give you incredible dental specific information.   After the launch of the web based Isaac, the company continued to innovate, releasing an app for both Apple and Android in the last few months.  Isaac is now with you no matter where you go.

However, those steps were only first steps.  I've been under an NDA on this for a few months, but I've been quietly watching the company work toward something truly groundbreaking.  For decades now dentistry has been using practice management systems to run offices efficiently.  The result has been some pretty incredible progress.  The drawback is that those efficiencies have created an ecosystem of "add ons".  Most offices are now currently running several pieces of software that interface with the PMS to allow greater efficiencies in workflows.  Most of those extras work quite well, but each of them carries an added monthly cost.  To achieve those efficiencies offices suffer "cost creep" as more and more monthly fees build up.

Trust AI decided to build a new PMS from the ground up, building the functions that cost extra directly into the system.  No more "cost creep" because those add-ons aren't needed.  The result is a brand new PMS called Isaac Practice OS that has, at its core, AI built into everything.  The AI in the components talk to the AI in the core code.  They understand each other and, more importantly, they understand dentistry.  It's like nothing dentistry has ever seen before.

Most dentists, myself included, have a PMS that they've used for years.  Quite simply, there isn't enough benefit of changing systems.  Are we happy with our current systems?  Most doctors will say no, but there also isn't enough benefit to go through the hassle of changing to a different one with its own set of problems.  From what I know of Isaac Practice OS, now the change is worth it.

Below is a recent post on LinkedIn from Bernard Casse, the CEO and cofounder of Trust AI.  Bernard is the one that created Isaac and Isaac Practice OS.  I highly recommend that you read it...

$1/month.

That's what it costs to try the platform that had dentists coming back to our booth 3 and 4 times (for real!) at Chicago Dental Society 2026 – dragging their hygienists, their front desk staff, and their peers back with them.

What did they keep coming back to see?

An entire workflow: insurance verification, treatment plan, claim creation, review, and submission – done live in 5 minutes. Start to finish. The insurance claim alone? Produced in 60 seconds by 7 AI agents working together. That's the same claim that takes your front desk 45 minutes (on a good day!).

That's 𝐈𝐬𝐚𝐚𝐜 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐎𝐒 (recently featured in Dentistry Today). Built with AI at the core. Not another bolt-on. Not another "AI-powered" feature duct-taped to a legacy PMS built in 2005.

One AI-native platform. AI Scribe. Live Perio. Insurance verification. Treatment planning. Claim creation. Submission. And more... End to end. No workarounds. No toggling between five systems. No hold music.

The number one thing dentists asked us about at CDS? 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 → and the revenue they know they're leaving on the table. We hear you. Medical billing is coming in v2.0 and I'm going deep on this in a Forbes article publishing next month.

The legacy PMS era is over. You already know it. You feel it every Monday morning when your front desk is an hour into a single claim.

We're letting 200 practices in at $1/month for 2 months. Then it's $299/month with over $2,000 in value built in. First come, first served. Once the 200 spots are gone, they're gone.

👉 Sign Up: https://lnkd.in/dQzxKVky

Dr. Paul Feuerstein Wins "Dental Technology Lifetime Achievement Award"

 

Somethings just make you smile, and this is one of them.  For over thirty years I've been friends with Dr. Paul Feuerstein and Dr. Marty Jablow.  We met in the very early days of dialup Internet and have been close ever since.  We've traveled together, lectured as a trio, and eaten at a lot of amazing restaurants.  I treasure them like brothers.

Last week at the VIP Summit in Chicago, Marty and I presented Dr. Paul with the Dental Technology Lifetime Achievement Award.  It was well deserved.  Paul has been practicing dentistry for 52 years.  He installed one of the very first office computer systems into his office in 1978.  He was a dental tech expert before I was even out of high school.

He has worked with darn near *any* dental tech that you've heard of.  One of the coolest things he was involved with was a startup out of MIT.  In the early days of intraoral scanning, he worked with three graduate students who were working on one of the first full motion scanning systems.  That system was eventually sold to 3M and brought to the dental market.

Added on to his incredible knowledge and skill is the simple fact that he is truly one of the nicest people you will ever meet.  He's one of those people that you meet and just like.  There aren't a lot of those people in this world, which puts in him in very rare company.  He's also got a contact list that you wouldn't believe.  He has the uncanny knack to remember practically everyone he meets.

I'm so proud of Paul!  He is still seeing patients 52 years after getting his degree as well as being the Editor in Chief of Dentistry Today.  We can *all* learn a lot from this guy.  Not only about dental tech, but about how to be a good human being.  It was one of my life's greatest honors to be part of giving him that award.

Taking a Few Days Off for the Chicago MidWinter Meeting

 

One of the biggest and best industry meetings is this week.  It's time for the Chicago Dental Society's MidWinter Meeting!

I'll be back next week with some reports on what I saw and what happened.  It's hard to post on the road, so thanks for understanding!

Proud to Announce... The Technology Evangelist Podcast is #7 on "Top 25 Dental Podcasts" of 2025!!!

First off, I try to be humble.  No one wants someone else to always be droning on and on about themselves.  However, I'm also a firm believer in celebrating your successes.  I think, especially in dentistry, it's easy to ignore your successes and focus on your failures.  So, with that out of the way, I want to celebrate a recent success...

Today I received word that The Dental Podcast Directory announced their results for the "Top 25 Dental Podcasts of 2025".  In the 2025 voting, The Technology Evangelist Podcast came in at #7!!!

I'm incredibly honored and excited about this, which probably goes without saying.  We only started releasing episodes in May of 2025 and I've been stunned by the reception we've received across the industry.  Of course, like I've said here before, a podcast is nothing without an audience and I am *so* grateful for all of you who listen and watch every week.

I have been writing for dental publications since about 1998, but the one drawback to analog articles is that the author never knows if it was read by 1 person or 100k.  That's what brought me into blogging.  I could tell how many people were reading.  I could actually look at the numbers and see if I was covering topics people were interested in.

However, video is a completely different animal.  It allows the audience to actually get to know the people and to get some insights into what they are all about.  To that end, I've really worked to bring a wide variety of guests in.  There are so many interesting people in our industry and often they work behind the scenes.  I've tried to give some of those people a way for everyone to meet them and understand what they do.  It takes a huge number of smart people to keep dentistry moving forward and I love giving people a chance to tell their stories, provide their information, and let others learn about them.

If you voted for us, thank you!  Rest assured there are many more episodes to come!

If you'd like to watch or listen, you can find us on the following platforms:

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• YouTube
• Amazon Music
• iHeart Radio
• GoodPods
• Dental Town
• The Medidenta website

SHOFU Beautifil II LS - Lives Up to Its Name

 

Before I get to today's post, I want to let you know that SHOFU will be at the Chicago MidWinter Meeting next week.  Their booth is number 2815.  They will have product samples available.  If you won't be in Chicago, you can still get samples of their products.  Please feel free to contact your Territory Manager to request them.  That info can be found by clicking this link.  Now that you know how to get samples, let's get to a discussion on a SHOFU product I'd like you make you aware of...

I'll gladly admit that I am a dental materials geek.  I've always been fascinated by the 'why' and the 'how' of things.  To be completely honest, I didn't realize how much that would come into play as a dentist.  I was always drawn to the field and that interest started when I was just three years old.  At that time in my life, I had no idea how much my choice to enter dentistry would factor into that interest.  Because of that I've tended to do a deep dive on many of my materials choices over the years.  One of the things that really piqued my interest was the subject of adhesive dentistry and composites.

There are a lot composite restorative materials on the market, but there are lots of differences between them.  For sure the category is not a 'one size fits all' kind of thing.  I've always been a guy who keeps a few different products around so that I can completely match a difficult anterior case.  Sometimes I use a less aesthetic material in the posterior because the patient has a high caries rate.  There are a lot of variables when it comes to materials *and* patients.

Then you factor in costs.  Do you want to keep your money tied up in several different lines of composite?  Can those resources be better served elsewhere?  Doctors routinely are confronted with these, sometimes difficult, decisions every day.

Today let's discuss a way around that dilemma.  SHOFU has a terrific material called Beautifil II LS and it is pretty amazing.  The material is a nano-hybrid.  Why is that important?  Nano-hybrids have incredibly tiny filler particles and that makes them polish incredibly well.  That's critical in anterior restorations.  In the case of Beautifil II LS that structure also combines to create light transmission and diffusion properties similar to both dentin and enamel.  That helps the material to blend really well and minimizes the need to layer to create life-like restorations.  The polish and optics make this a great material choice for restorations in the cosmetic zone.

However, aesthetics are just one aspect that make Beautifil II LS a terrific restorative choice.  It is a truly universal composite which is suitable for the posterior as well.  Those same nano-particles are also amazingly important in posterior restorations.  The material is highly filled (83.3%) and that high filler load gives it strong resistance to wear (0.52%) as well as low volumetric shrinkage (<2%) which gives it incredible strength under occlusal loading.

Beautifil II LS also contains SHOFU's proprietary Giomer Technology.  There is a big focus for restorative materials to have "bioactivity", and I think that is a good thing.  However, we don't have a lot of long term data on many of those materials.  Giomer Technology has been around and in use for about 20 years and has a great track record.

Giomer is super interesting.  It is a surface pre-reacted glass-ionomer (S-PRG) filler that was developed by SHOFU.  It basically creates a hybrid material that has glass-ionomer like fluoride release and ion exchange being imbedded in a composite that has incredible aesthetics & polish.

However, just because it's *similar* to glass-ionomer, it also has some tremendous advantages.  Giomer particles release:

• Fluoride
• Strontium
• Sodium
• Borate
• Aluminum
• Silicate

These ions produce several biologic effects:

• Fluoride release + recharge capability from topical fluoride exposure
• Acid neutralization and reduced enamel solubility
• Promotion of remineralization and tooth strengthening
• Antibacterial and antiplaque activity against cariogenic pathogens
• Inhibition of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) → potential bonding longevity benefit

All of these things combine to make the material bioactive.  Of course it's also strong, shade stable, and polishes to a glass like finish.

One other factor that makes SHOFU a good choice is their price point.  As I mentioned above, running a dental practice is not only about hand skills and great material choices, it's also (unfortunately) a business.  Doctors are constantly walking a tightrope where we try and balance costs with production.  An office has to be profitable to survive.  It's a difficult thing to do.  I've said for years that you can have the best clinical skills on the planet, but if you cannot stay in business you're not going to help very many people with those skills.  That's where another great point about SHOFU comes into play.  The price of many of their materials is around 30% less than some of the other well known brand names.

For young doctors with high student loan debt or doctors looking for ways to trim their operating costs, SHOFU products can be a good business choice as well as a great material choice.

I'll wrap up today's post by saying that I think Beautifil II LS is a terrific material and is *highly recommended*.