The Tooth Fairy Meets AI — with Dr. Yasmin Kottait

Dr. Khalil Karam: Hello, my name is Dr. Khalil.

Presenter: Dr. Khalil Karam is a digital transformation strategist as a creator of the MAS concept in Fujairah, UAE. He integrates technology with aesthetic care to transform patient experiences shaping the future of digital dentistry across the UAE.

Dr. Khalil Karam: next dental, uh, podcast. I'm an expert in dental, uh, digital dentistry and in ai, so today our guest, Dr Yasmin,

Presenter: Yasmin Kottait, often called Dubai's Tooth Fairy, is a specialist pediatric dentist with nearly two decades of experience with an MSC in pediatric dentistry and MF. From the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, she transforms anxious, first visits into confident smiles and leads the way in inclusive sensory aware care for autistic and neurodiverse children.

Dr. Khalil Karam: She, she's a pt and you know her from social media. She's very active and every kid that can tell they love her, not they like her. They love her. Mm-hmm. Victoria has mean she has experience more than. 15 to 20 years in pediatric dentist. She has been, uh, in academic, uh, part of pediatric dentist. She has also experience in running her own, uh, pediatric specialized dental center.

So she knows everything about pediatric dentist. And today she will be talking about AI in pediatric dentistry. Welcome tutorial.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: Ah, thank you so much. I appreciate the invite. Thank you so much for inviting me on Next Dental. Of course. Um, you know, as a, as a pediatric dentist, um, you have a lot to learn, okay?

You have a lot to learn and you have a lot to be, and you have a lot to acquire. To get to, to be the word best is great, but to be the best version of yourself that. That serves these kids the way they want. So, you know, it, it, I'm, I'm, um, uh, I'm a bit, um, amazed that I used to remember me from when I was working in Nicholas, and as before, that was like 15 years ago.

Isn't that awesome?

Dr. Khalil Karam: Exactly.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: And yeah, so I finished with that and I decided I'm gonna go on my own. And once I decided I wanna go on my own, I said, you know, the patient journey is very important. I wanted to draw my patient journey, and I wanted to draw the patient journey. Up to the highest quality standard of care and use old AI technology or again, the digital technology that we can, so instead of the normal needle, have a digitized needle.

The SDA, instead of, you know, just behavior management, have conscious sedation, nitrous oxide. Okay. Again, it's all about the tools that fit pediatric dentistry, that makes pediatric dentistry work very. Easy and it helps the child relax more and helps the child really trust the dentist, which is not that easy.

Not that easy at all. Even the parents trusting the dentist. Not that easy at all. And then helps the child grow up with not fear of dentistry, not aversion to dentistry. Loving dentistry. Wanting to go to the dentist.

Dr. Khalil Karam: I think Victoria has mean, uh, if, uh, knowing you for the past 15 years, going from one stage to another stage or from one success to another success.

Ah, thank you for that one. You have gained certain, um, I will say powers. 'cause with the powers the responsibility comes. Right. And I think the kids. Because you are not dealing the adults, you are not dealing with the adults. Adults, they express very well. Now let's do a little bit profiling of your patients who are not adults and they are, who are your typical patients in your day to day?

And what are different with these patients than the grown up patients?

Dr Yasmin Kottait: Well, you know, there, there are types of kids, just like, there are types of adults, you know, to, to understand personalities. Basically there are four types, let's just simplify it. Mm-hmm. Four types of personalities. Right. And, uh, there, there's a very interesting read.

It's called “Surrounded by Idiots”.

Presenter: “Surrounded by Idiots”, A book written by Thomas Erickson, A Guide to Understanding four Typed of Personality and Improving Communication.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: Mm-hmm. I don't know if you read this book, but it cat categorizes people into four different colors. Okay. The red, the green, the blue and the yellow.

Okay. And kids, of course, some kids are social kids. They wanna talk to you, they wanna, you know, they are the expressive kids. Some kids need. The sense of control, which is the red kids need, I do it, I can do it. And the green kids need a lot more love and the blue kids need to feel in order and, and put on that.

You know, for kids, again, you have to put a lot of. Factors in. Okay. You know, generations now make such a big impact. Alpha. Now there are beta kids, by the way, this year, beta started,

Dr. Khalil Karam: I know the Z gender. That's, that's

Dr Yasmin Kottait: ZZ, alpha, beta. You know,

Presenter: mark McCall's generational theory explains how formative years shape each generation's unique values and behaviors.

Defining groups like Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha,

Dr Yasmin Kottait: and also on top of that, what is their environment at home? And based on this, you get to say, Hmm, this kid, yeah, this kid needs a lot more love. This kid needs a lot more structure. This kid, no, no, no. I'm not gonna be able to crack this kid.

I need to separate him from the parent.

Dr. Khalil Karam: I think that that's very enlightening because as a GP dentist, I see a lot of kids, but we don't focus on all these things. Our focus mostly is, or the difference between them and our regular patients or the adults on the anatomical basis. So this, you have primary teeth and this other, but we don't go to the other dimensions, which we have.

Basically categorize them. I think that makes a huge difference. Being a parent of five kids, they don't look the same. Yeah. At trust you. Absolutely. They, they, they, they, they, they never, they never. Absolutely. I have the naughty one. I have the, the one who obey me and the one who rebels me, and the one who makes me think how to deal with them.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: And the same sentence. The request for each five is different. Yeah. And the one that obeys you

Dr. Khalil Karam: done

Dr Yasmin Kottait: and the one that rebels you, uh,

and then you like this, and then he obeys you cannot just tell him the same sentence. Right.

Dr. Khalil Karam: Yes. Exactly. Exactly. I think, I think that's, that's the, uh, diversity in, in p pediatric dentistry, which is being, uh, overlooked now, especially with the new generation of pediatric dentists. They don't try to understand the, the, to dig deep.

Exactly. They don't, they because, uh, working with a lot of periodontists. It's, it's a GA case as simple as this one. Just, it's like, you know, uh, when you are going, you are trying to treat, um, an animal. You, you, you sedate them completely. So the, the, the kids, they don't get that interaction with the dentist.

They don't feel the, the, the cognitive part, the behavior part, I think, and that the influence part, yes, you

Dr Yasmin Kottait: can influence them with a smile. I think that makes a huge difference in their life. Smiling or saying hello or, you know, but. The minute they walk in, you look at them and you understand their story.

When you understand their story, that's when you are able to talk what they need to hear, to say it the way they need to, to hear it, and for them to be able to. Answer back or, you know,

Dr. Khalil Karam: I mean, that's one of the challenges, even again, I will just put myself, uh, in, in, in, in, in, in front of p pediatric patients.

They're not easy. Yeah. They're not, they're not easy and Yeah. And each age has special

Dr Yasmin Kottait: skill.

Dr. Khalil Karam: Yeah. It, each, each age has their different things and it's not, you are dealing with the patient himself only. Ah, you are. Parenting their parents.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: It's not

Dr. Khalil Karam: easy to deal with them. So if we come and try to categorize the kids on chronological, uh, aspect of the, the age of the kids, uh, uh, do you think there, there are different behavior, uh, patterns there?

Or what are the, the factors you consider them as Victoria mean? When you are dealing with these kids based on their ages, uh, that will be very enlightening if you can.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: So that's a great question. So if we wanna categorize kids based on their ages, uh, again, remember I just mentioned a second ago that there are so many factors, but again, to simplify it, zero to three, zero to three.

Is their logic mature? No. So what do they need more of? They need to feel safe. All the kids need to feel safe, of course, but zero to three, the extra, extra need to feel safe and need to feel the emotional connection. So for example, you're, you're seeing a kid zero to three. You want them to open the mouth.

A lot of parents come to me and say, whoa. Bail la and he's three years old. So I just tell them, okay, step back. Let me do my magic. So I come, I say, hi. Hi Har, how are you? High five, physical touch. Okay. And then Harald is like, oh, doesn't seem the enemy much. Oh ha, you play here, Sochi. Look, the TV distraction.

And then hared is suddenly feeling. Oh, she looks like a friend. What did I do? I came from an emotional perspective. Okay. And then the more you come at emotions for these feel safe, and then haha, show me your teeth. Ah, done. And the parents are like, oh, how did you do that? Because I didn't come say open bag.

He's not a, he's not an adult, he's not a mini adult. An open bag by a phone. And that's why from zero to three, emotional connection first. From three to six. Emotional connection first then comes a little bit of imagination, a little bit of fun because from three to six they understand more the life around them and they understand more why.

So actually, uh, I have a little lion. Okay. And it happened that the little lion lost his teeth. Okay? Due an unfortunate accident by another kid. But kids don't know that. So whenever they come, I'm like, what happened to Leo the lion? And they're like, oh, Kalua, he ate sweets and that's why his teeth are bad.

And I'm like, yes, and they get it. And then I'm like, can I check your teeth? Guess what's the answer? Yes,

Dr. Khalil Karam: you can get that to it. I think, uh, the, the influence, uh, with, with the kids, you, you mentioned, um, emotional dentist, the empathy practice in healthcare is being highlighted so much, and I think the best who excel this part of healthcare as overall the other periodontists.

Yeah. They, they know the, how fragile is a human being from a sentimental. Perspective, right? So a simple gastric could make, make the this kid very, uh, compliance with your, uh, uh, treatment or very, um, annoying or difficult. Or resistant, right? So empathy is very runs for the door. Exactly. They, this is what happened.

And, uh, I, again, doctor, uh, being a periodontist. You have a hard job of following what's going in the, in the social media. Ah, because you need to be updated with these kids. Yeah. So, for example, they're tech

Dr Yasmin Kottait: savvy.

Dr. Khalil Karam: I, yeah. I I think they're born

Dr Yasmin Kottait: with a phone in their hand, literally.

Dr. Khalil Karam: Exactly. Now that will be the next thing I will discuss with you, but the thing is.

The trends, which you're saying, for example, lab trend.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: Oof. I jumped on that trend at the end.

Dr. Khalil Karam: It's, it's, it's, it's a lot. I think there's a lot of things, especially with, with their, um, teeth, smiling teeth. I think those sort of trends brings you tools, which you can implement it. 'cause as you said, kids, they want someone to be near to them.

Understand. They want someone to understand them. They understand them. They, they, they need them, but. If we, we go there, unfortunately, the parents' rule is this is what is missing in, in, in UAE market. Not everyone, or not all the parents, especially we say, uh, EMT or locals, we have still the same culture of those are the primary teeth and they're going to shed off.

Yes. And we don't take a good or the, the minimum. Uh, requirements of taking care of these teeth. So I want you to just give this, just to highlight this issue and how the parents should deal. With their kids starting from the, these, uh, different age categories of the kids.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: Um, so yes, it's, so the, the, the point you highlighted that still the awareness is not widespread is true, but again, in all fairness sense, uh, for, for all fairness sake, for, uh, the great parents of nowadays, most parents nowadays, the millennial parents.

They are actually showing up, they're understanding I, I got kids that are six months one year, which never have happened in the past. So the awareness is spreading and it is improving, okay? Mm-hmm. And with that being said, my first piece of advice for a parent new or. Have a lot of kids is first see the dentist no matter what first year of life, see the dentist.

If it's not for a problem, don't wait for problems to see the dentist have a preventative mindset. Okay, even if the child's teeth are baby and they will fall, but do we really want the child to have pain in their teeth before the child? The child's teeth fall at 10 and that is why. Whatever stage the parent is in, always see a pediatric dentist regularly follow, you know, all the, all the, all the information is everywhere.

Now you can ask your g, PT anything and everything. Exactly, and they will tell you so. Is it like we ask GPT little things here and there, we ask GPT, how can I have a healthy child? Then you will know that dentistry is a big part, an integral part of the health and the body health that we often.

Dr. Khalil Karam: Overlook that, that's, that's the, the holistic approach, which is the, uh, I think the, the direction of contemporary healthcare.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: Yes.

Dr. Khalil Karam: And you don't look at the tooth. No.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: The tooth happens with a child. You look at the child, the tooth is, the tooth is not a burden. Exactly.

Dr. Khalil Karam: They, they, they, they usually overlook it. Again, this is, this is the, the main thing. Even as dentists, as a professional, uh, they, they just ignore why, what they don't know.

They don't know what are the kids needs. It's not only cleaning or whatsoever, it's, it's, there's a lot of things. I think even the, the, the, the kids, the, the generations now, uh, six years, seven years, they get bullied for their, uh, when they, they lose their tooth. Yeah. We, we never felt this thing. No, we never, the, the, even the perception of this.

Uh, emotions. It's much

Dr Yasmin Kottait: different now. It's different. And, and, and kids see, kids are very visual, so they really see you not like us, you know? I see. But kids, they study your face and the face has half of it. The mouth. Exactly. And that's why now, facial aesthetics, growth. Development, the tongue, the, I had a child, I had to remove two teeth for her because they got an abscess, and then the mother the next time told me, even the teeth are at the back.

She's getting bullied for having no teeth at the back. Imagine no way. The kids are ferocious and they look at the back.

Dr. Khalil Karam: Exactly the, the, and she's only

Dr Yasmin Kottait: five.

Dr. Khalil Karam: This is exactly what, what made me very, uh, conscious about pe my p uh, p pediatric patients was that because I have seen teenagers with, um, they lost their personality.

They don't, they don't smile. Yes. They become introverts.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: Ah, they, they smile like this. Yes,

Dr. Khalil Karam: exactly. They never, and I have treated many of them, and it, it was a life changing event. I wasn't what was the root cause of this problem? It was somehow a dentist who did not say, let let it take it to the right person, or the parents did not take the, uh, the kid to the right dentist.

I think we need to focus on a special specialization, more than a broader scope of work of dentists. Mm-hmm. I think this, uh, topic is very crucial now, especially we have. Enough specialized dentists. We have the access to this one, uh, to these specialties. So what do you think? As a GP, dentist way, what, what they need to do.

So, um, the, they, they properly allow their skills to have the opportunities of, uh, right growth without pain, without negative feeling toward this one. So what, what's very important, what do you advise for the dentist as a GP dentist to do this thing?

Dr Yasmin Kottait: So I would advise for gp, GP dentists to attend courses to get educated to, to attend conscious sedation courses, to attend white crown courses, to attend Silver Crown courses, to attend diagnosis courses, to attend growth courses, to attend all these courses.

So then they know what's their scope, whether. Something is harder than their scope or something within their scope. And honestly, the more they learn, the more they really know what to do and how to do it. You know, I have started referring out my endodontic cases, although they come in kids, so it's within my scope.

Right, but if I do it in two hours and someone much faster than me, does it in half an hour? Do I wanna do it in two hours or refer to him, do it in half an hour? Of course, I come do the sedation and the talking, la la, la, la, la and you know, the happy talk. And then the endodontist finishes his job from top to bottom in half an hour.

Dr. Khalil Karam: Ex.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: The more you know, the more you know. You don't know

Dr. Khalil Karam: exactly. I think that's the thing. But let's get to the big to, uh, title, big topic, which is the ai. I think part of our, uh, we cannot resist the AI anymore. It is our culture is everywhere. This is the pop of culture now. But the thing is, for example, to even today talk, it's partially being prepared by ai.

So we cannot say that. We are doing everything by ourself, but what is AI and how is going to change pediatric dentistry?

Dr Yasmin Kottait: So now we live in a digital era. Everything is digitized from the, uh, injection, from the sedation, you know, from the patient recall, from our, uh, softwares that govern our life as patients from the check-in, from the checkout, all digitized.

And honestly, AI is such a force that it is taking the by storm. So there is no doubt that AI is the future, but now. Again, I'll be the devil's advocate. We shouldn't rely on AI too much. We should take the best of the ai, but not the, the, the disadvantages of the ai because ai, you know, you ask ChatGPT, ChatGPT, tell me more about decay, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Oh, good stuff. But if I come and tell you more about it. Decay and I'm a dentist and you come to me for information, you're gonna get a lot more out of me. More than ChatGPT and it's connection. Exactly. So as much as ChatGPT is, we are using it and is great. We as dentists need to educate patients this little bit more to work with ChatGPT and use it as a great tool, but not to lose our substance, not to lose our our core.

Dr. Khalil Karam: You mean Dr. That the AI is a tool, is a great tool. Is is, is as, uh, Dr. Fox, uh, described Yeah. Is augmented intelligence. It is not artificial intelligence. So it augments your work. It helps you. Exactly. You, it needs

Dr Yasmin Kottait: us. Yes, to guide it.

Dr. Khalil Karam: Exactly. But let's say I have been reading a lot of articles recently about ai.

Yeah. And I think there are few articles in the field of Pediatric de, which attracted me a lot. Ah, there was a Korean article talking about. Prediction models of early childhood caries, right?

Presenter: This 2021 study by Park Kim and Choi shows how machine learning can be used to predict early childhood tooth decay, helping with earlier detection and prevention.

Dr. Khalil Karam: Imagine they, what they have been doing. They're trying to forest the data enough. And with different, um, uh, factors, consider different factors. Uh, the parents age, uh, their, their, uh, uh, social status, right? Their job and all these things, and predicting. The kids who they will have in future. Right. In future and how much caries they will have.

Right. I think, uh, Dr. You as a periodontist, you know that, that always, the parents, when they come, they, okay. My kids always, they, they, uh, blame the caries to, to the genetics or to the right. It's in our family, so we, we have poor teeth. Right. But I think with ai. Highlighting these models or, or, um, bringing such a models will be a breakthrough Yes.

That you can. Predict how your kids' teeth are going to build. For example, if, imagine if you have a score of your future kids, either maybe male or female, right? How much the care index will be. We are, we are in era. We are expecting to, to see new diagnostic tools. Tools,

Dr Yasmin Kottait: yeah. Absolutely.

Dr. Khalil Karam: So what do you think of such a, um, direction of pediatric dentistry and how this will help you?

A periodontist in, in, in, in, I will say near future,

Dr Yasmin Kottait: you know, so the Carries risk model is not new. Yes, it's not new. There are so many and there are so many actually programs that, you know, you, you put these data, the, the parents age, the inputs and everything, the saliva, you know, there's the habit, da da, and it shows you high, moderate, low.

And, uh, it, it's, it works. It works, it has its space and especially if you give it to i ai and then you don't have to do the, the dirty work. It works quick and amazing, but the But I have here is, do you think our patients are ready to hear that? I think not. I think and, and you know what the caries risk is?

It's ingrained in a pediatric dentist's minds. I'm always thinking people. Mm, high low carries. Ah, yesterday I got a patient, I had three siblings, three siblings. One, I did x-rays four. The two. Not why? Because one, I know he is a high caries risk, but his siblings not. And see, I didn't even use a model or whatever because it's ingrained in me now.

The new generation pediatric dentistry of dentists, we need them to have this caries risk model ingrained in them. And the more we educate our patients, the more the patients. When they see, oh, AI is showing me, then they are on board. But the thing is right now where I see it is our patient is here still thinking baby teeth are worthless and we are here.

We need to get this patient to here to see what we see and, and be on board with what we wanna do.

Dr. Khalil Karam: I think, uh. As communities, we have a trust issue with ai.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: You right,

Dr. Khalil Karam: it's a growing trust issue. I have read an article that it's, it, it, it states that, um, or the conclusion was that the AI and trust is decreasing because of, uh, the threat.

They see it on themself as a human being. We see AI as a threat for us, but I think we need to think a little bit. Furthermore, because it's a tool. We, we, we de we, we, we set it as a tool. The tool could be useful tool right in the right hands, right? So let's say, uh, I, myself, I've been using the ai, uh, radio, uh, radiographic.

Detection's. Amazing.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: It's great.

Dr. Khalil Karam: It's an amazing thing, right? To do it. And, and ha have you tried it, doctor?

Dr Yasmin Kottait: I, I just did those quizzes.

Dr. Khalil Karam: Mm-hmm. You know,

Dr Yasmin Kottait: and, uh, I thought. Yani. I, I know my stuff. I, I think, and I ate humble pie, you

Dr. Khalil Karam: know, like, I, I will tell

Dr Yasmin Kottait: you, uh, because that would predict a lot of future. It is, which I wouldn't, so ai, especially in this case, detection model is the best.

Dr. Khalil Karam: I think. Let's, let's, let's make it a little broader. Yeah. AI in diagnostics, right? So detection, radiology is a part of that one detection. As you said, doctor, you cannot. Uh, uh, depend on these tools. Yeah. 100%. Right. And you said the trust issue with the parents, but it's a good tool because the language of the, this era is ai, right?

That's a culture. So

Dr Yasmin Kottait: I do have a, another, you see, I told you I'm gonna be the devil's advocate to tell you the pros and then the cons, of course. And tell you what I think now. Again, I, I'm a pediatric dentist, right? Many, many, many years. And I see an extra and say, ah, look here, look here, look here, look here.

And I can, yeah, this one is for sure. Root canal, this one. No, it's not yet. Something like that, right? But then if I am completely depending on AI to do my work for me, what's happening to my brain? So according to a very interesting study, it, it, uh, it.

Dr. Khalil Karam: Sort of recession happens in your

Dr Yasmin Kottait: Exactly. So it was comparing between people heavily relying on chati and people not into writing an essay.

Right,

Presenter: The 2025 MIT media lab study your brain on ChatGPT used EEG scans to show that relying on AI tools like ChatGPT can lower brain activity and memory.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: And the people that heavily rely on ChatGPT while they're doing an essay, they, they concluded that they have less neural pathways being, being happening, being fi firing to be creative and the people that are not.

Counting on ChatGPT have good neural habits, good memory, retention, good, good, good, good, good. But people that are heavily relying on ChatGPT, their neural pathways are being trim, trim, trim. So in other words, they're becoming dumber. So again, as dentists, we should be very, very, very careful to rely, but not to rely.

Dr. Khalil Karam: Do, do you think, do you think the human. Uh, phrase is going toward a devolution, the, the human race. Yes, exactly. If you don't

Dr Yasmin Kottait: use it, you lose it. Part of the brain as well. Exactly. If, if you're not becoming creative and developing new problem solving ability, solve about problem solving and creativeness and, and thinking outside the box and, you know, sitting like this and, and struggling with it.

I think

Dr. Khalil Karam: just

Dr Yasmin Kottait: ChatGPT what can I do? Done? I think

Dr. Khalil Karam: this is, this is what? This is a new, it's the core of your field of Pia p dentist. 'cause you see the growth of the kids, the cognitive growth and physical growth, they are related to experience. Right. So once you don't experience and you have a reliance, for example, you see the kids who rely on their parents so much, they'll ask, ask the permission of their parents, should I sit?

Should I don't sit? Should I do it in each, uh, while he will try to, uh, take the permission directly or on directly for the parents. So AI is a great tool.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: It is.

Dr. Khalil Karam: But we should not be very dependent on ai. Yes. Because we are going. To lose our skills.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: Right, exactly. Exactly. The skills

Dr. Khalil Karam: are, are, I think the, this, this, uh, this means should go to the, the, the educational, uh, hubs or the universities.

They should not, or they need to monitor or restrain or such a eye, uh, things. Exactly.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: Use it in a way that serves you, but make sure it's not using you. You are using it.

Dr. Khalil Karam: For, for example. So what I did the, the couple of two days, uh, to prepare this, uh, discussion. I went through, uh, chat, GBT. It gave me an outline, but I went to my traditional way, which is the Google Way.

And again, I read articles, I read reviews. I, I have, uh, read other articles, business articles, so I, I know the AI. So easy. It's a, it's a spoonfeeding you, right? And you should not be spoonfeeding, right? So I think that that's the part we need to, uh, even this podcast is about AI and pediatric dentist, but it's not only the positive part, even the negative part, we need to be alerted to so we don't get engaged so much that then, then we start losing everything, right?

We are already losing. Our precious five to six hours daily, which is the average phone news, by the way. All right. Five to six hours. Yes. Interesting. It's, it's, it's a, I'd be

Dr Yasmin Kottait: surprised not more, but Yeah.

Dr. Khalil Karam: No, it's, it's a, it's a, it is a long time. Yeah. Because we, we, we, like, uh, human, they, they, they start tending to, like watching even the series, the, the, the movies.

Right. And their smartphones. Can you imagine? And it brings a very, uh, uh, scrolling, scrolling. The kids are just like this on YouTube. That's an addiction. You know? They're scrolling now. It's very important. Even the younger

Dr Yasmin Kottait: ones, two to three years old, I see them. What do they know? Nothing.

Dr. Khalil Karam: See, doctor, I have tried with my kids, you know, like you need to pull it out from their hand, right?

They only, they will sleep.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: And it's a tantrum.

Dr. Khalil Karam: It's, it's, it's very, very, um, uh, al alarming, uh, technology. But again, let's say, um, diagnostic, 'cause sometimes we do skip certain diagnosis or, or, or due to being underqualified or you don't have that experience, or even for medicolegal aspects, you need, you need, uh, someone who helps you to, to, to find these.

Diagnostic markers right on your x-rays to

Dr Yasmin Kottait: teach you to teach you teach is different than spoonfeed. And if AI is used to teach, then it's, it's in the right spot at the right time. But if it's learned to spoonfeed, it's not.

Dr. Khalil Karam: No, it's not. I, I, I totally agree with that. And, and,

Dr Yasmin Kottait: you know, I want Instagram. Yes, I'm, I'm kind of known on Instagram, so I get a lot of pediatric dentists who are students texting me and telling me, this is the x-ray and this is what chap, GPT me gave me me.

What do you think? And I'm like, yeah, remove this, remove this, remove this. Why is this like this? You know? So imagine the student has an X-ray. And to write their essay or assignment. They're using ChatGPT and of course ChatGPT, everything it knows. And I'm like, no. If it has, for example, a peri apical, uh, abscess or a, a peri apical radiolucency or a bifurcation radiolucency, no, you cannot put reversible.

Pulp Heights anymore, this is actually per apical abs. That's the only diagnosis there. You know, so even students nowadays, they're, they're, you know, growing on a pediatric dentistry model that is so, um, reliant on AI that it will not make them learn well,

Dr. Khalil Karam: I think it, it's very important they should know that AI.

It doesn't work on the same way as a human brain works. Mm-hmm. Till now, of course. And reliability on the information for ai, it brings from everywhere. So you don't have a controlled models, right. It's not a controlled model, which it takes. Now if we go to the controlled models, they have been through a lot of machine learning.

Hmm. Process. So they excel very specific tasks. Hmm. For example, finding or, or identifying those markers and, and the, and the knowledge itself. Right. They say it's an augmented right intelligence. It's not substituting you right? So you should not be following them blindly. Blindly. It's not your cooking recipe.

You are not cooking a cookie. It's a human being. Again, that part may be very easy when you are trying to translate what AI dictates on you or, or it tells you to do for the tooth with an adult because he's there, but with the kid, your cognitive part or the behavior part. AI cannot help you or maybe it can help you.

So what do you think could be the new frontiers of AI where it can help you in, in a management of the pediatric patients?

Dr Yasmin Kottait: Uh, new frontiers where AI can help in pediatric patients.

Dr. Khalil Karam: Yes, it's a very, uh, it is, it's an awkward question, but let, let, let, let me rephrase it in a different way. Yeah. I think, for example, the chat bots, I have read some articles in business.

They, they were talking about AI chat bots specifically made for the kids. An interactive one. How it's, I imagine if someone is trying to do, it's like a, uh, Victoria ask me, she's trying to obtain certain information or trying to break the ice with this kid about the dentistry. Hmm. So those chat bots, they, they, they bring the information and they are freely.

For example, you just put that iPad or a small mini robot and your waiting area and it starts, you know, making conversation. Interact it, interact exactly. So, and

Dr Yasmin Kottait: kids would love that. That's their new

Dr. Khalil Karam: world. I think there are some models, uh, there, but they are still still not tailored to the kids. And that's why I'm telling you, there's a huge gaps Right.

In, in, in AI when it comes to pediatric. Exactly. They don't understand, or, or they might understand the anatomical needs, but not the psycho, the cycle psychological needs. Are not there. Right. They, they don't understand. So, uh, do you think putting such a tool, uh, AI tool, which, uh, take part of your job as Dr.

Yes. Mean, because I'm sure you have a lot of things from, from even before the patient or the kid come to your clinic. Mm-hmm. It needs to be ready. Mm, mm-hmm. You have homeworks or you have each your, your, your kids' cycle from, uh, getting the pain or getting the symptoms and going to Dr. Yasmin, getting the treatment, doing the follow up.

AI can be implemented in short rules. What rules do you think that can be done by AI with these type of capabilities? For example. Starting talking. Mm. They say, they say Dr Yasmin will take her consciousness and put it in small mini rules and let it deal with the kids.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: I'm, uh. I am old school, I wouldn't do that because they, you know, ai, it's good to have a little robot in, in the waiting area, telling them, you know, brush your teeth and things like that.

But that wouldn't stop me telling them, brush their teeth and showing them and playing with them. And they will not get love from anybody else but me. And they come to me not because I do a great feeling or I do a great crown. It's because I give them love and they gimme love back. That in, in, in all eternity will never ever be replaced by ai.

Dr. Khalil Karam: I totally agree with it, but as we are seeing kids or, or say the, the, the new generations, they have a certain tendency on, on believing what AI is telling them, right? Unfortunately, absolutely. Yes, unfortunately. But

Dr Yasmin Kottait: yeah, kids believe no matter who's telling them what they will believe it. You know,

Dr. Khalil Karam: so, so I think, I think the AI in this part.

Let's say again, I'm, I'm not trying to take the part of a nice periodontist because obviously we didn't have a nice periodontist when we were young, but

Dr Yasmin Kottait: that's why I became

Dr. Khalil Karam: a pediatric dentist. Exactly. Yeah. So, and I remember the horrors back in the day, unfortunately. But the thing is, let's try to get, um, AI do something for us, right.

For example, documentation of your, that's easy.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: Yes. Medical reports. I read them all like. Write about blah, blah, blah, blah. Two seconds done.

Dr. Khalil Karam: Uh, and you know, like, um, I was, you know, like, again trying to find things which are being done. Yeah. Kids monitoring. Now there are some reports they are, uh, telling, uh, there are smart mirrors or maybe an idea of, uh, many small drone, which you'll be your personal healthcare assistant.

Wow. Imagine. And of course, so you know that there are certain models of, um, uh, applications or AI application where you take your, uh, teeth picture and it gives you your oral, uh, right hygiene status, right? So, uh, these type of consumer level. Gadgets. Uh, and with the power of ai, do you think those things are going to make a difference in, in, in, in kids overall, uh, oral hygiene?

Well.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: Actually if kids do believe what everyone is telling them and then AI tells them, you know, look at this and you know, AI could do like these little cute videos that animated or whatever. I think yes, because then they would see what's happening rather than just me saying, you know, there's a sugar bug or whatever.

And that would leave a lot, a lot more impact on their memories of when they came to see the dentist and when they're leaving.

Dr. Khalil Karam: I think, I think I, I'm very, I'm very serious about this thing. 'cause again, uh, we are start, uh, uh, starting seeing gadgets based on ai and I think, you know, the kids going to interact with it so much.

Right. And especially, you know, like it gives you metric based, not, you are not brushing your teeth enough. Right. Uh, we will, um, uh, uh, uh, send a notification for your dentist. That's nice.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: Just like order B brushes the electric brushes. They, they give feedback. They have, you know, an app.

Dr. Khalil Karam: Yeah. But, but again, we are, we are trying to switch a little more.

There are models which visually recognize what you are doing. Exactly. And, and that Exactly.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: It's, it's a whole new level of technology. It's

Dr. Khalil Karam: exactly this. And

Dr Yasmin Kottait: then I love this notification. Z today didn't brush his teeth. Hello, Z Your boss just telling me

Dr. Khalil Karam: exactly. I think that's the level of, that'd be amazing.

That will be the new, uh, norm of, uh, uh, taking your oral hygiene to the next level. It'll be something. Now, other thing is Victor. I think you have, you have a part of your life as an academic person,

Dr Yasmin Kottait: right? Wow.

Dr. Khalil Karam: See, no, me too much. I know. Not too, too much. But the thing is now we, and it was a

Dr Yasmin Kottait: great start 'cause it gave me the academic to practice very well.

But at the same time, you know, a clinician is different than academician. So it's good that I had to apply both because I studied so much and so, and how to present and how to read literature, blah, blah, blah. And then when I'm a clinician. It's like digested.

Dr. Khalil Karam: It's different thing now. What ai, what do you think of now, I, I, I know as an academic and you are teaching students, one of the biggest c cha challenges for you is to bring a consistency level across all the qualities.

Mm. So this student has to do basic, this is basic, basic, basic things. Do you think having a tool like an ai mm-hmm. Can, uh, improve or the quality assessment across, let's say, education yes, hubs, and also as a, as a business woman, you are, you, you are doing your own venture, right? Dr. Asme, she's doing great job, but is her colleagues or her employees taking good care of their kids?

Obviously, you cannot see. 30, 40 kids in one day. Right. Someone else has to see. I wish. Yes, exactly. Someone else, someone else will see them. Your colleague, your partner, right? Whatever. AI is going to be a good tool to help you. Identifying such a as short is exactly an assessment of short comes. Your, uh, right.

Patient's care, correct?

Dr Yasmin Kottait: Yes.

Dr. Khalil Karam: What, what, what do you think of these things? I think it's very

Dr Yasmin Kottait: promising. Do,

Dr. Khalil Karam: do, do you do it yourself? Do you do it yourself personally as a human being? Let's call it Hi, the human intelligence, right. Are you doing it by yourself? Going through the cases of, uh, uh, at your academy, uh, lifetime.

You, you assist the cases, you evaluate your students. You used to do that thing at that time?

Dr Yasmin Kottait: Yes. Yes. And we used to keep changing how we assess them, because again, we went from a model of MCQs to assess. Mm-hmm. But a doctor can't be an MCQ person, is he? Right. A doctor isn't about, or a, a pediatric dentist or a dentist isn't about doing a class one restoration perfectly.

Dr. Khalil Karam: Mm-hmm.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: It's a lot more than that. So then as assessments started from m MCQs and essays to being like, Hmm, let's do clinical, let's do simulation, let's do osci. Let's, you know, give you a patient with cancer and see how you're gonna break their bad news. Let's give you a patient, uh, with autism and a child on the spectrum and pretend to see your empathy, your skills, your communication.

How are you gonna talk to this child? How are you gonna reach this child? So assessment went from a flat to the. Do this, MCQ, this, this essay, and it kept evolving, evolving, evolving. Now I see for sure that the AI model has, you know, the roof as its limit. Uh, especially if again, you make it work for you. So me personally as a clinician, let's say today I had a child, I put a crown, but the crown, usually a crown has the last 5, 6, 7 years.

But this crown particularly fell in a month. So now I come with myself and say, Hmm, why did this crown fail? Why did this treatment fail? And this is how I learn and improve, right? Uh, there are some things in dentistry with a steep curve, like you don't get them easily. You really have to keep at it. And one of those is the white crowns.

They, they are a thing, especially in the pediatric dentistry world, zirconia crowns, they can fracture easily. So the first time you put a crown. You have to, to have the i, the human intelligence to be like, Hmm, so what didn't I do there? This is where I wanna be. How can I get there? Right? And if you combine HI and ai, not make AI be all, you combine both, then you really have a good chance of being like a super dentist.

Dr. Khalil Karam: Exactly. I think, um, what's going now, uh, Victoria, that, uh, more of population. We have a population is growing always right? We are dealing with more and more patients and we are becoming, uh, more of bulk practitioners. We do, we see if you are a clinic manager or clinic owner, you need to deal with a lot of data.

Uh, of patients and dealing with this data tells you a lot right about your profession, how you are, right? It's, it's a marker. It's an indicator and a KPI of how you are performing, uh, the quality. So, um, are we going to see such tools that will bring. Decision making on clinic levels, like a honor, uh, of, of multiple clinic levels, uh, that will be something judicial, that they help the, the, the clinic owners or the clinician themself to assist bulk of these things.

Okay. Today I have been doing, for example, a treatment. It is like doing your own research, uh, for your class ones. How many class ones I have. They turn into, uh, IES or ies, should I change the quality of my thing? What? So these different KPIs, using an AI will be much easier to deal with them. Mm-hmm. So do you think yourself using such a thing or such a tool to help you and assessing your service?

Over a period of time, especially, uh, if as a clinic manager or or a land manager or a bulk you have done, for example, for last two years or three years, hundreds of of cases or thousands of cases, I think that needs to be assisted in a way. Okay, this is me, this is what I've been doing. This is the right way.

We are not talking about the, um, research, we are talking about your own practice.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: Right. Well, yeah. Well, the great thing about AI is it gives you a lot of metrics. It can give you a lot of KPIs, right? But the thing about AI as well, it, it loops back to you what you wanna hear, right? So you actually have to tell it.

No, dig deeper and tell me how can I improve, dig deeper, and tell me what should I do more? Dig deep and tell me what KPIs will really show my success as a business owner.

Dr. Khalil Karam: I think, I think, um, uh, AI has a a, a good potential in pediatric dentist, right? Very much. But we need to be very cautious, right? It's not your regular patient.

Those are not adults. Right. And I think data privacy and all this, these are very crucial for the parents to allow them to do these things, right? Um, we are at. The, uh, the, the, uh, uh, introduction only to pediatric dentist or ai and p as a GP dentist, an expert in ai, I see a lot of things happening in other fields, right.

And implants and everywhere. Mm-hmm. But in pediatric, it's a bit slow down. I think that's because of the sensitivity, right? Of who are dealing with, and it's, I don't think it's very soon that we are going to lose our jobs. With the AI and everyone's talking about the robots. That's happy news. Yeah. So before we conclude everything, Tomine, um, I want you to just give us.

Uh, an advice to dentists 'cause this podcast for dentists who are very dependent on ai, right? How a piece of advice, right? I think you are the right person to give this 'cause you're the least one to use AI in your daily practice, right? So I want you to give them a piece of advice.

Dr Yasmin Kottait: So I would advise. Uh, baring dentists to use ai, you know, for documentation, for medical reports, for modeling growth, which is something very important now for orthodontic patients or myo brace patients.

Uh, use it for, you know, those, those scanners use it in a way that makes the patient journey lighter. Don't get too dependent on it to diagnose, to read an x-ray too much and, and above all, don't use it for behavior management or understanding human psychology because human psychology comes from interaction, from sympathy, from empathy, from love and connection, and that's what our patients need.

Dr. Khalil Karam: Dr. Yame, thank you so much for attending and enriching my information about ai. I thought I was an expert in ai, but you have enriched and you fight back, or you fought back about being a human intelligence, not only ai. So thank you so much. Thank you so much for following the video. Follow us, subscribe and if you have any comments or I wish, if you can share us how you use the AI in your daily dentistry.

Goodbye and we'll see you in next podcast series.

Presenter: Want to use AI in your clinic? Try Remedico EMR sponsor of this episode. They're pioneering AI for dental clinics. Go to Remedico app and request a free demo now. Remedico software for modern dental clinics powered by ai. Hey, and don't miss Next episode. Search Next Dental, one word, no spaces on all major podcast platforms and click subscribe.