Research between dental and health care markets revealed that nearly 40% of the total dental health care spending is out-of-pocket, with health care spending only comprising 11% according to Health Services Research. With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimating that nearly 50% of American adults suffer from dental issues but only 15% visit a dentist twice a year, insurers are looking for ways to incentivize patients toward more frequent visits.
Dental insurance is currently a major expense for a large portion of Americans. The cost of dental care in the United States has been rising at an alarming rate since the 1980s, and with many people lacking dental insurance, it can be hard to find affordable options. Around 74 million Americans do not have dental insurance and 6 million Americans lost their dental insurance as a result of the pandemic (Source:https://bit.ly/35uSitl)
The problem is simple – the lack of a system that helps the insurance companies to motivate consumers to opt for affordable dental insurance plans.
Solution – The Toothlens App
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused uncertainty, financial strain, and confusion for many people, including business owners and consumers. The global coronavirus pandemic has had a huge impact on nearly every industry, and the dental insurance industry is no exception.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the dental insurance market was significant owing to a decline in income and a sharp decline in the demand for dental treatments. In contrast, the technological advancements of virtual check-ups and online consulting with dentists during the lockdown had a positive impact on the dental insurance companies. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a catalyst for many changes in the way dental care is delivered and paid worldwide. The pandemic led to a massive increase in uninsured individuals and families. As a result, dental insurance companies have been forced to innovate to meet the new needs of their customers.
Toothlens was developed considering this need for innovation. Toothlens is an app that provides a technological solution for dental insurance carriers, members, and provider networks. It was developed with an aim to help dental insurance providers to increase their customers, especially post the pandemic. This app is not an add-on app, rather it is the need of every insurance provider in the US today!
Given the economic downfall owing to the pandemic, many consumers do not regard it necessary to get insurance for dental care. Therefore, Toothlens was designed to reduce the cost of preliminary examination by shifting the entire process virtually.
Toothlens technology
Toothlens is a mobile app that is developed on ML technology. It is a quick and user-friendly dental health management solution. Toothlens helps a user to self-detect for any potential dental problems at an early stage.
The mechanism of Toothlens is simple; it works on a unique ML algorithm, called the Toothlens detect technology, which can detect various dental problems such as cavities and tartars by simply using the images of teeth.
There are many uses of Toothlens:
- dental self-checks for cavities and tartars using dental photos
- risk assessment using dental, medical, and habits as parameters
- continuous self-tracking of dental health
- insights for home care based on risk scores
- triaging based on dental risk assessment
- enabling dentist connect
How Toothlens benefits insurance providers
Imagine a system that helps dental insurance companies attract more customers because of the affordable virtual check-ups that the company offers. Toothlens is a unique app delivering such a technology-driven system that is the need of the hour.
We follow a B2B2C approach and license our app to insurance companies who in turn offer it to their policyholders. We operate in a partnership model with all types of insurance providers. In addition, the app can be seamlessly integrated into the existing systems for a smooth transition.
Apart from driving more customers, Toothlens can help dental insurance providers in several other ways:
- Early detection of dental problems using the AI app
- From the data received, the app recommends the next steps considering the risk factors, which is a unique service
- Seamless integration into the existing system of a company without disrupting the ongoing operations model
- Ability to track the dental habits of customers, a promising service to penetrate the market
Benefits of partnering with Toothlens
Apart from the advantage of having an edge over other insurance providers by offering unique technology-driven dental solutions, the Toothlens app has increased benefits for its partners:
- virtual preliminary checkups to detect, track and manage cavities even before the symptoms occur
- preventive dental healthcare for better dental hygiene and lower dental treatment costs
- patient-specific app deriving results from the last computer vision algorithm
- immediate risk score results
- user-friendly app experience
- spreading awareness about oral health care within the community
- both synchronous and asynchronous dental checks with dentists
- remote monitoring of orthodontic treatment
- flexible pricing options
- full authority to customers’ data
App features and implementation
The app includes many features – virtual dental checks via teeth images, dental health scores, check-up recommendations, etc. These features not only help in the early detection of any dental issues but also saves the time and efforts of a consumer on a dental visit to get a preliminary checkup.
Implementing the app is very simple. The insurance service providers can trigger the Toothlens app from their existing app, website, or any other tool. As a part of the confidentiality agreement, we do not store any user information and share the entire user database with our insurance partners, giving them complete ownership of the obtained data. Moreover, our pricing model is flexible providing either usage-based or PUPM-based pricing options to our partners
How Toothlens is different from any other app
Toothlens is unlike any other product providing virtual dental checkups because it is based on ML technology, thus making the process more efficient and cost-effective. Many dental problems can be prevented using Toothlens, thereby reducing emergency visits to dentists. Several similar products exist in the market, but none utilize the technological aspect adopted by Toothlens and so this app surpasses all the similar applications in this space.
Sources:
https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/dental-insurance-market-A06828
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/07/03/despite-covid-19-increase-insurance-companies-pull-back-telehealth/5352297002/
https://psnet.ahrq.gov/primer/covid-19-and-dentistry-challenges-and-opportunities-providing-safe-care
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