DentalFynd founder Tobi Bosede describes creating an AI platform designed to connect dentists and fee-for-service patients who purchase care in advance.
DSOPro: Tell us about your background and how you became involved in dentistry.
I have a software engineering and mathematical background and have spent decades in the field using my degrees in mathematics, applied math, and statistics. I always had an interest in healthcare. I was pre-med as well in undergrad and then decided to apply my skills from a technical perspective, working as a software engineer. I worked for electronic health record companies like Cerner, which is now Oracle, and the equivalent to a practice management software (PMS) in the dental space. I worked for a lot of different corporations, including Capital One, JPMorganChase & Co., and Sprint, which is now T-Mobile.
Basically, I’ve always had a real love for STEM, which stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. I’ve always been “out there” in a way. Eventually, I just got bored of corporate life and wanted to do more and challenge myself and entrepreneurship came calling. I went back to the University of Pennsylvania and studied entrepreneurship at the Wharton School and here I am!
I’m the founder and CEO of DentalFynd and the president of People of Color in Dental. DentalFynd is a tech platform marketplace that enables dentists to acquire fee-for-service patients. It essentially allows patients to purchase care online. They shop for dental services the way they shop for sneakers on Amazon or a burger on DoorDash. We offer payment plans that are alternatives to insurance as well.
People of Color was born out of my experience starting out in the dental field as someone who had no dental experience and no industry contacts. I had to work really hard to navigate the industry. I saw that a lot of women’s groups existed, but I didn’t see any groups for racial minorities, or communities to support them and enable them to thrive in their careers. People of Color is a professional association where racial minorities are encouraged to thrive and are supported in their careers alongside allies.
DSOPro: What inspired you to create DentalFynd?
It was prompted by my personal experiences as a patient, meaning that I, as a technologist, was always wondering why it was so hard to shop for healthcare services. Why wasn’t it as easy as ordering food on DoorDash and seeing the pricing and knowing the quality up front, or why it wasn’t as convenient as shopping for sneakers on Amazon, getting them in a few days, and not having to deal with surprise bills. Whereas with healthcare, when I was needing that service, I would always find myself spending a lot of time calling around and trying to get pricing information, despite having insurance, not knowing the coverage and just wanting to be financially responsible.
I also spent a lot of time going to sites like Zocdoc and Yelp, reading reviews about the quality of the care people received. Dentistry seemed to be a simpler marketplace than medical. Basically, many people feel dental insurance is an add-on and that the way dental insurance works, it’s just not as much of a value-add to the patient. At Capital One, I was working on a chatbot called Eno that uses AI to help people avoid surprise credit card charges. I decided I’m having this problem in the dental space, and I have the skill set to fix this problem. I’d done it already in the financial space and I would translate my skill set to helping people in the dental space avoid surprise healthcare charges using AI.
It turned out dentists are super frustrated by insurance as well—the lack of transparency, the negotiations, the paperwork, etc. DentalFynd can create wins for both sides and directly connect patients and providers in an easy way.
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DSOPro: When did you start the company and is it nationwide?
About 3 years ago. We have been focused on New York, but we’re in the process of going nationwide. To that end, we’re always looking for more dentists who are interested in piloting DentalFynd and we’re currently offering it for free.
DSOPro: Tell us about the structure and how it works. Is it designed for patients looking for dentists as well as dentists looking for patients?
Yes, that’s correct. Basically, let’s say Dr. Smith is interested in being more active and removing the friction, or the barrier that patients experience trying to find him and paying for dental care. He decides to sign up for DentalFynd or claim his profile if it has already been populated by us. Next, he will either update or add procedures to his profile, such as cleaning, whitening, aligners, and other things that patients can self-assess. He can also add more complex services like fillings, implants, and root canals. Dentists have full autonomy in what they list for services.
When patients see the services, they can choose what they need. A patient may need an appointment outside their work hours or doesn’t want to interrupt their work to look for a dentist. Maybe it’s 3 a.m. and they want to make an appointment for a whitening treatment. They can go on DentalFynd.com, create a profile, and then search for a dentist, or maybe for Dr. Smith in particular, or just type in their zip code.
As I mentioned, we offer alternatives to insurance, and the patient might have one of our plans. For example, they can get two free cleanings and 15% off everything else. So, they will get a 15% discount for the whitening. They can input their credit card information or their health savings account (HAS) card, add it to their cart, and check out. That will prompt a booking request. They are not actually charged until Dr. Smith comes in during business hours and approves the appointment. He can also message them in DentalFynd if he or his office manager needs to clarify anything. Once he clicks approve, the patient receives a notification email and then their card is charged. If Dr. Smith declines the appointment, the authorization for the whitening would be voided.
Patients can also include their availability when making this booking request and message back and forth with the office to pick a date. We recently upgraded to include a calendar so patients can also select dates with that. The confirmation email generated by the dental office will include an appointment scheduling link as well.
An advantage for dentists is that by connecting their bank account information with us, we can deposit funds to them when patients pay for the appointment. So, they’re getting paid in 5 business days as opposed to 30 or 60 days. If they have connected with the online scheduling functionality, dentists can also see how much money they’re making, or their cashflow, through DentalFynd. That really helps with their P&L tracking.
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DSOPro: Approximately how many dentists and patients are using this system?
We have about 6,200 dentists listed in the New York area, and about 3,200 patients who have created profiles. We’re working to get those numbers active. We haven’t started generating revenue yet, per se, because we’re working on engaging patients to actually purchase services on our site. We’re in the process of pursuing target patients. We’re a great service for people who don’t have insurance or want to supplement what their insurance doesn’t cover with our plans. Our plans are really new and often, in the past, patients were creating profiles and then not actually purchasing anything.
I should note that when I talk about the numbers, there’s a difference between overall stats and active users. As we’ve learned more about the patient who is ideal for us, we’ve made changes to both offerings. We’re incentivizing patients to come back and see their dentists and make the most of their subscription with us. We are also targeting the right kind of patient demographic, people who aren’t just going to create a profile but who understand and see the value proposition in purchasing care with DentalFynd.
DSOPro: How are you finding the patients and the dentists?
Dentists aren’t as easy to find as you’d think. They have a lot of gatekeepers, whether it’s their front desk staff or they don’t have a direct email. If you reach out to them on social media, a lot of people’s inboxes are filled with spam, and they don’t want to connect with someone they don’t know. It’s even very difficult to go to them in person. You would think in theory I could just call them, email them, or walk in, but they’re too busy seeing patients. They don’t have time for a vendor. That’s why it goes back to the connections and the relationships that one has built in the industry to get past those gatekeepers and other barriers.
That’s also why forming an organization like People of Color in Dental was so important. If I had more of a community, if I knew more people who were veterans in the field, that would have shortened my learning process. So, I founded the group so others new to this field will have more guidance.
Going back to the ideal target patient for us, it’s small business owners, recent college grads, and maybe the nursing home and elder care space. For these types of patient recruitment, we partner with the organizations behind them. In the case of small business owners and independent contractors we’re partnering with co-working spaces, accelerators or venture firms that fund startups, and groups like that. To some degree, we’re looking at partnering with employers as well. That depends on the size of the company, but we’re looking at that as another channel. We’re also thinking about universities, and long-term care facilities where social workers will help make appointments. And we really want to be able to service not just traditional in-person care, but also help dentists offer teledentistry or mobile dentistry to provide that convenience to patients if they are home-bound. High schools could be another avenue to pursue. Those are some of the future ways we plan to acquire and track patients.
DSOPro: Are you working with dental groups and DSOs now?
Yes, technically. We have a group in Texas with five offices. We’ve also spoken to a number of DSOs. We’re not at the stage where we can work with Aspen or Heartland yet, and they’re very good at doing marketing and acquiring patients for their dentists. We’re ideal for the practices with under 15 and up to 20 locations. They can offboard that part of their marketing to us and focus on what they do best, which is practicing dentistry.
In addition to new patient acquisition, DentalFynd helps with retention. We make it easier for your current patient population to be active and reactivate them by offering the conveniences of online scheduling and payment. That removes the conversation from your staff, if they don’t have the time or they’re uncomfortable talking about finances. The other thing is patients are incentivized to show up because they’re prepaying. Patients often cancel last minute, and there are no shows if the weather is bad. Some offices charge a no-show fee but at the end of the day, does that $50 cover the treatment amount for that case? That real estate, the dentist’s chair, is very expensive. It’s more likely patients will show up if they have skin in the game, too, when they’ve paid in advance for the appointment.
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DSOPro: Tell us about your AI consulting.
I speak about AI to various organizations. For example, the American Dental Association wants me to speak to their members about AI soon. It is something we will be incorporating into DentalFynd as well. The end goal for DentalFynd is to make it real time and dynamic such that we understand the supply and demand for appointments. So, for example, if you’re skiing and you chip your teeth, and Dr. Smith has a last-minute cancellation, we’ll be able to efficiently slot you into that spot while also filling Dr. Smith’s schedule. Or, if you’re willing to wait six months for a cleaning, we give you a discount for waiting. It’s like Uber, they have surge pricing and then there’s “wait and save.” That emergency service will be pricier because it’s time sensitive versus being willing to wait.
We also designed a quality metric that is part of our IP where we have dentists’ “FICO” scores, so to speak. It’s basically an alternative to average stars. Instead of having a subjective metric, we offer dentists a more fair metric where patients can assess them. It’s not perfect, but it’s way better than the current status quo, which is subject to people who are disgruntled and doing online reviews on a whim.
DSOPro: Is there anything you’d like to add about either DentalFynd or People of Color in Dental?
We are offering free pilots to dentists right now. So regardless of location, I’m happy to chat with people and answer their questions. And we’re always looking for advisors. We would be interested in a chief dental officer, someone who’s very vocal, very out there in terms of being interviewed and being on podcasts about the work we’re doing and about reducing dentist dependency on insurance and helping them be fee-for-service.
So, if you’re excited about what DentalFynd is doing and the future we’re creating and you want to be a part of the journey, there would be compensation for a board position and that kind of thing. Interest in equity in the next Uber for dental is another conversation I’m open to having.
People of Color in Dental is a national organization dedicated to supporting and empowering minority dental professionals alongside their allies. Through advocacy, education, and community building, PoC in Dental works to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within the dental industry.
Anyone interested in talking about People of Color, whether you are a racial minority in dentistry or you’re passionate about diversity in dentistry, I’m happy to chat about that and get people involved. All the membership information is on our website in the FAQs.
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Tobi Bosede is the CEO of DentalFynd, a marketplace where patients shop for dental care, and President of People of Color in Dental, an organization for minority dental professionals and allies. Tobi is also an AI and machine learning expert. This has enabled her to build predictive systems for Fortune 500 companies, including J.P.Morgan and Capital One, resulting in billions in revenue and multiple patents.
With a master’s degree in applied mathematics from Johns Hopkins, Tobi is most passionate about leading high-impact initiatives and solving complex technical problems. Aside from the decade of experience in technology that Tobi has under her belt, she is Ivy-league educated and completed her bachelor’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania.
Tobi believes in giving back by sharing her talents with the community. Nigerian and a Jersey native, she is a fellow of the American Association of University Women.
About DentalFynd
DentalFynd is an AI platform filling empty dentist chairs with fee-for-service patients by enabling patients to purchase care in advance. Patients get care on demand and can schedule tele-dentistry and home visits as well as traditional dentistry. This allows dentists to be paid in advance, reducing insurance paperwork, no shows, and debt collection.
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