77: Dr. Abe Abdul, Founder of Dental Cupid: Dentists Are Still Critical to the COVID-19 Response

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Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of DSO Secrets. I'm your fearless host, Emmett Scott, and today I'm here with Dr. Abe Abdul. Dr. Abe, thank you so much for being on DSO Secrets today. I really appreciate it, man. We've been chatting on the private Facebook group here and we're streaming into that group right now. But I can tell you're just doing some innovative things. And I started writing down your bio and then I'm like, okay, we're just going to have to talk this through because there's like a story behind every piece. I mean, the main one and the reason we kind of connected was everything you're doing around Dental Cupid, as you're calling it, the Chief Innovation Officer there, cio. So I definitely want to talk about that. But, you know, you've got quite the bio. So anyway, Dr. Abe, thanks for. Thanks for being on with us.

Hey, thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited and I love all the things that you're doing for my profession and all the things that you're doing to try to improve and reinvigorate innovation in these difficult times. So, Emmett, I'm very excited to be here with you.

Well, that means a lot coming from you. So, like, tell us, currently, obviously Chief Innovation Officer, but you're a practicing dentist. What's your role right now, kind of from a work income perspective?

Well, we're all unemployed somewhat. That's the joke. But I am. I founded Lux Dental in Quincy, Massachusetts, about, I'd say 14, 15 years ago right now. And now we have a couple of offices. We have one in Quincy, we have one in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and we have a recent one developed in Somerville, Massachusetts. Lux Dental is rather unique. It is my baby firstly, and it has always been in a place where we've wanted to improve access to care. So. So we're one of the few institutions where we've created an opportunity to basically accept Pretty much all insurances. We operate seven days a week. We bring in all the tech there is. We embrace efficiency, we embrace technology. We're trying to provide the highest quality of care at the same time being realistic with social, economic challenges. So it's been very fruitful developing this organization, both for myself and for all the members at Lux Dental. And we hope to continue to grow.

Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, can you give us some examples of some of the technology or some of the services that you're providing there at Lux Dental that you feel is making a difference?

I will tell you this. You know, 3D printing, you know, is pretty commonplace right now. Digital imaging is pretty commonplace as well. What I pride ourselves most on is besides the microscopes, the CT scans, and all the toys we have, I pride ourselves on being able to really provide support not only to our patients, but also to our staff. We're very, very integrated in terms of relationships with our staff. We call it the one big family. So we have routine meetings. Very often we have opportunities, not just from a hierarchical structure within an organization to communicate with our staff, but we to educate them. We continue to provide them with opportunities inside and outside the clinic from a professional and from a social level. And I think that is the greatest strength. And our staff are the biggest advocates for our practices in terms of recruiting patients to our practice. You know, we're going to talk about dental cupid in a little bit. But ultimately, to this day, the number one source of patients for all of us, for every single dental office, is still the word of mouth. And where else are you going to get better word of mouth than from your existing patients and from your. From your team?

Yeah, I can tell that culture is a big part for you. That's important, right? Having a good culture within your organization. All right, so let's get into dental cupid. Like, where did this brainchild come from? Was this something you came up with on your own, or is this something that you did with a partner they came up with and you're supporting? Tell us a little bit about that.

You know, for the longest time and, you know, dental cupid certainly has its roots. A few years before what we have done. I've always been interested in trying to figure out how do we optimize the new patient experience, how do we connect new patients with dentists? How do we make this process reasonable? You know, some of our colleagues are paying, you know, a large volume of money in terms of getting leads to patients, but yet, you know, that number may not be justified. In many ways, it's too transactional. So we've spent several years right now here in Boston as dental cupid trying to study that relationship. And we've. We had a lot of exciting work that's being produced here in terms of how to create that relationship and how to find, optimize the lead process and at the same time, not cost. Dental practices an arm and a leg. So when COVID 19 happened, we scrapped all that. This is an emergency. This is a national emergency. This is a global emergency. Doctors needed to be connected to patients. And when I say doctors, I mean dentists and physicians as well, but mainly dentists, because I'm a dentist and I love what we do. The issue at hand is the vast majority of us were closed. The issue was, and still is, to a certain extent, that many of US didn't have PPEs. And the guidelines were very, very obscure. Patients. Dental patients. Just because there's a pandemic, it doesn't mean that dental emergencies no longer exist. Patients were going to emergency rooms. Emmett, have you ever been to a medical emergency room?

I have. Sadly,

we won't explore that. So I had the pleasure of serving the Brigham and Women's Hospital both as a resident and an attending. And I can tell you that emergency rooms are not made for dental emergencies. I mean, if you're having an airway closure, if you're having a severe abscess, maybe, but. But for your routine dental emergency, that's not the place to go. And unfortunately, here in the United States, we still use that for some as dental care. And during COVID this is gonna be a tragedy. We're gonna have patients with cardiovascular issues, patients with respiratory issues, and patients who think they have Covid, and patients who do have Covid, all inundating hospitals. We knew that was a problem. I reached out to our colleagues at the Brigham Women's Hospital. They told me, yeah, a referral system would certainly help. I told them, we will develop that referral system for them in three days. And it was a tall order. So, along with two of my interns, Mr. Zhao, Mr. Ming, together we set up Dental Cupid. And it was simple. It didn't have to be fancy. It had to be a directory that simply allowed our hospitals to refer to dentists that were open. We started off with 20 dentists. That was it. We can only get 20 dentists. And it was difficult pushing a new idea. And, you know this, Emmett. It's not easy pushing a new idea. You know, a lot of you say

you were only able to get 20 dentists, meaning the program only held 20 dentists, or only 20 dentists would input or give you their information or supported the program project.

Only 20 dentists would give us their input and their information. That was it.

You're saying, hey, you can put your stuff on here for free. But it was just hard getting the word out.

It was very difficult, Emmett. It's so difficult. You know, we are. We. We are in an industry that, you know, has a lot of culture, and there's a lot of sales force that's going into dentistry, and some of these sales processes are better than others. So convincing my colleagues to spend the time during a pandemic to do something that's very, very different is a challenge. But, you know, we're grateful to this day for the first 20 doctors that signed up. And we were grateful that, you know, Brigham and Women's Hospital, you know, they're a huge institution, they decided to implement dental cupid the day we delivered dental cupid to them. So it's phenomenal. It's a. A prime example of how dentistry, medicine, innovation, we all got together during a pandemic quite swiftly to create change.

Yeah, that's awesome. So where is dental cupid today?

Now we have 12,000 dentists signed up to dental cupid. And just not just the United States. A month into the process, we had dentists from Japan, dentists from Australia, dentists from Canada reach out to us. And the first question they said is many of them was, how much. How much does it cost to be on dental cupid? And you should see a lot, hear a lot of their voices in their faces to realize that there is no cost. We are charging nothing. We are doing this because there is a need, and we want to fulfill the need. And it's our professional obligation to try to create change in this space.

So if a dentist right now had a practice or a series of practices, could they still go on dental cupid, or is it closed?

It is open. It is open. It is open. You know, it is. It is very.

Well, it's open. Even when we're in shelter in place, it's still open.

It is always. It is open, and it is open. And to this day, it's been about three months. We have created over 16,000 patient doctor connections. 16,000. I don't have a good, you know, figure for you as to how many emergency rooms have, you know, you started utilizing the platform, but I can tell you a lot of. A lot of the hospitals in Massachusetts, across the nation is using it. I can tell you, the health centers are using it, the urgent care centers are using it, the community health centers are using it. And a special shout out to the Massachusetts Medical Society. They were one of the first people to promote the platform so that their team, their colleagues are able to provide appropriate care to patients.

Now, this might be a loaded question, but is there anyone you wouldn't want to have their practice there? I mean, I would assume, I assume that everybody should be on dental cupid. I mean, is there any reason not to be on dental cupid?

You know, that's definitely a loaded question. We are in a profession of providing care and I can tell you these are difficult times. They are difficult times. To all my colleagues, regardless of what kind of structure that you're in and regardless of what kind of support structure you are in, I would say this. If you are capable and you have the right instruments and the right PPEs and your office is functioning, there is no reason why you shouldn't be on dental cupid. You know, your hospitals need you, your community needs you, and you need patients as well. Let's be real, Emmett, you know what? Every day I'm a practitioner, I'm a wet finger dentist. Every day we keep our doors open. There's a reality of rent, there's a reality of, you know, paying your assistance. There's a reality of paying your front desk. And these, these are very difficult times. We know from ADA statistics that only 70% of offices are generating some kind of revenue and only about 30% has revenues that are similar to what they had prior to the pandemic. It's going to be difficult times. Unemployment's high, people are losing their insurances. We, the profession needs to be in the forefront in the public's view so that we can provide care. And dental cupid is there to fill that void.

Awesome. So encourage everybody who has a dental practice. Now, do you update too, if you are open or if you're closed? If things vary, do you just go on dental cupid and you just kind of update what your active hours are? Is that how that works?

Emmett, you're always one step ahead. You really are. As I had mentioned to you, when we first started this, it was really an emergency point. We wanted the basics of, you know, the basic information so that we can put it out there and get people to go ahead and operate. We are in the processes right now of allowing our member dentists to go on and start, you know, logging on and putting additional information about their practice, including their hours. We are probably about two weeks away from being able to have those capabilities. But we have, you know, you have our emails and we have yours. If you need to immediately change your hours, email us. We are not a. We are not a very large organization. Like I said, there's three of us. We're very lean, we're very nimble. We have a wonderful coding team. We have a UI team. We have a UX team. I myself call our member dentists, many of them, and I have conversations with them saying, you know, how are you doing? You know, the average dentist, the average member, has had over 17 new patients through Dental Cupid. I care about that experience. I want to learn, you know, how has that affected your practice? So we call our doctors, and if anybody wants to talk to me, I'm one phone call away. Just give me a call and I'd happy to chat.

Okay, that's awesome. All right, so we'll encourage everyone. Get on there. Get on Dental Cupid. Open that up and. And maybe we can increase that from your 12,000 to 24,000 and so forth. Continue to open that up. All right, Doc, so what else do you have going on? Because now you're getting involved with ADA at a higher level, too. I'd love to hear about that.

So I've had the pleasure of serving as a trustee for the Massachusetts Dental Society for a couple years. So I've been in organized dentistry for about 18 years right now, and most recently, I'd had the honor and privilege of being appointed to the Council on Government affairs for the American Dental Association. My vision has always been quite clear, and that is we need to improve access to care. As you are aware, Emmett, about 50 to 60% of the general population actually sees a dentist.

We've got some work to do, right?

We got a tremendous amount of work to do.

Can you imagine what that means? I mean, just to kind of put a pin in that, we say 50 to 60%, and, you know, I've heard 65, but I like 50 because it's an easy number. We're really saying we could double the entire industry. I mean, can you imagine twice as many people that might be more patient flow to Dental Cupid and to every, you know, dentist out there. If we could just figure out how to go do that, you know, and maybe figure out how to not be fighting internally as much as serving patients externally. Right, Doc.

I think it's a tremendous opportunity. There are very few services out there that has a market penetration of 50%. And if you were to look at the data, you realize that the people that are not coming to the dentist. Part of the reason is because of cost. And there are many innovative platforms out there that are providing opportunities for mitigating those costs. And the other reasons are fear. And subsequently there's reasons of accessibility, being able to schedule. And now we're in the world of teledentistry and organization, any organization, DSO, the mom and pop offices, the smaller group practices. You know, COVID 19 is a wake up call to all of us. We need to digitize, we need to identify efficiencies that could be implemented and we need to create change. And you know, the dental cupid platform that we've been working on serving in organized dentistry. My vision has always been trying to bring in these resources so that we can improve access to care and we can improve the practice of dentistry itself because, you know, dentistry does have a lot of room for improvement.

Awesome. Anything that you want to put out there that you're hoping to do on the committee there at ada, I think

it's time, you know, organized dentistry has done very well for its members. And particularly during COVID 19, the ADA has done a lot in terms of putting out information. The local dental district and state societies have done a lot, you know, very well. I think it's a time of collaboration, collaboration between government, collaboration between group practices and individual practices. And it's a time where we are not so easily satisfied with the status quo. Like I said, you know, it's time we face the reality that digitization, innovation has a huge place, huge part to play in all these institutions that have been around for, you know, eons. It's time for us to all open our eyes. COVID 19, you know, has, has definitely created challenges and have shown us where the voids are. And it's time we, we create change and opportunities.

Where do you think dentistry? You know, because we were talking before the show. So your dad's a physician, right? In Hong Kong. Where do you think dentistry fits in healthcare in general? It feels like we kind of got pushed to the sideline here on this last round. What's your thoughts around that?

It has always been my opinion that dentistry is a specialty of medicine. That has been a fundamental philosophy of mine. The oral maxillofacial system is an integral part to the overall bodily function and separation had never made sense to me. Having said that, you are right. You know, COVID 19 had created a lot of disparities into how dentistry has been perceived as compared to the other medical specialties. But it's not universal, it's not homogeneous There are certain pockets where we were considered crucial and integral, and there are certain areas where we weren't. Dentistry is an integral part of healthcare. There is no doubt about it. Let's talk about the future, the future of dentistry. What does that look like? The future of dentistry really means that we put our systems in place, we make the practices more efficient. We obviously concern, you know, we obviously focus on safety. You know, COVID 19 has certainly changed the perception of safety. But dentistry, dentists, dental practices, we've always been champions of infection control. This is not something absolutely one of the safest places. Having, you know, worked in a community health center, having served in a hospital, having been in private practice, I can tell you right off the bat, we are champions of infection control. But, you know, there's always room to improve, and the future of dentistry is bright. The future of dentistry. You know, there's a lot of teledentistry going on. You know, recently I put out a survey and I found that only 17% of our colleagues are interested in teledentistry. And there's good reason to that. And that is the platform isn't mature yet. Whatever we have in the marketplace is still not focused and appropriate for the diagnosis of oral disease. And I have to tell you this, Emmett, we have been working for years now, you know, even private, prior to this pandemic, on optical and design systems to try to improve the experience of teledentistry. And we're hoping to bring those technologies to the forefront so that we can allow people to kick the tires, maybe, you know, check a dentist out, Check a dentist out before they go see a dentist. You know, add in additional factors through dental cupid so that we can try to bring in the 50% that are not seeing the dentist. Cost is a huge problem in dental care, but fear, accessibility, those are tremendous opportunities for dentistry to take advantage.

Well, and cost is always an issue when value is not present. Right? So really, I think what you're talking about, Doc, is if we increase the value offering, cost becomes less and less of a concern. You know, I've got a son who no matter how much a new radio system or new add on to the truck costs, he sees value in doing that. Right? So I, I think it's always a perception of value, and we have a big opportunity to create a higher perception of value to what we're doing here.

Emmett, this is going to be a very familiar story to a lot of the doctors that are listening to this podcast right now. We have patients that walk into the Dental office with the newest iPhone or an LV purse, but yet they are unable to afford a certain procedure. I've always, you know, when I teach, I always talk to my doctors and my students, and I always say this. Why is Apple and LV and all these entities so successful in promoting their products? Why could people afford that, but yet they cannot afford a dental procedure? You are right. You are spot on. It's the creation of value.

Okay?

What is the value of a crown? What is the value of a root canal? Why are we as a profession unable to make these things sexy? I mean, let's put it out there. Why. Why is the Apple store so sexy? And why is the dental practice not so sexy? Why are we still fighting to try to tell a patient to preserve a body part? I mean, that's crazy. It's completely insane. They should want a body part. We shouldn't have to beg them for it. But that these are, these are voids. These are opportunities for organized dentistry, for our group practices out there, for dentists as individual to think about. And hence dental cupid once again. It is a platform where we're trying to, you know, dental cupid, you know, the love God. We're trying to match patients. We're trying to entice you and say, look, you should love your dentist, okay? You should love dentistry as a profession. You should find that dentist that fits you. It's your tailored dental experience. And that's where we're going the next month or two. And I'm very excited about it.

Well, thank you, Dr. Abe. I really appreciate you being on, talking about some of these resources that are very available, but also your mindset. You know, what I love about your mindset is it's an ownership mindset, right? We could blame the patient. We can say, well, no one just appreciates me, but it's like, no, what do we need to do to step into that? So I really appreciate it and I appreciate you being on the show. Any final words?

Firstly, I want to thank you so much for all that you're doing in dentistry. I'm very excited. You know, I was very excited to come to this interview, and I look forward to continuing our conversation and I look forward to contributing to our profession. And it's going to be. It's going to be a tough year or so, but I'm sure we're going to stick together and through innovation and an open mind, we can change dentistry and we're going to create value to our patients. Thank you, Emmett.

Thank you. If any of you have any more questions, come on over to our private Facebook page at DSO Secrets. Look up Dr. Abe Abdul there. You can just ping him directly. Ask additional questions and we'll get those answered. Until next time, keep smiling.

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