What if you could get a dental checkup with no tedious scheduling, stiff plastic chairs, bright lights in your face, or metal tools in your mouth? What if you didn\u2019t have to sit in a waiting room or hear a dentist scold you for not flossing more? \u201cWe realized you don\u2019t need to bring in a full dentist at a thousand dollars a day just to examine someone\u2019s mouth,\u201d says Feng, the CEO of Kells and an engineer who has worked for companies like Amazon and Google. \u201cWe can bring a dental hygienist to someone\u2019s workspace and conduct a \u2018first-look\u2019 screening in under five minutes,\u201d says Feng.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you have a tech business, you can\u2019t afford any technical interruptions. WeWork understands basic services have to be delivered.<\/p>Kevin Duffy, cofounder and COO of Kells<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Kells\u2019s business model involves a dental hygienist who uses a hand-held X-ray scanner around the size of a large camera. The hygienist visits the patient\u2019s office, clinic, university campus, or other site and can take scans in just a few minutes. One hygienist with one scanner can conduct around 50 screenings in a single day. Kells\u2019s AI software analyzes the scans and produces a standardized report\u2014the \u201cKells Report\u201d\u2014that can be provided to an actual dentist for further analysis and care. A link to the report is then delivered to the patient via email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJust like a credit card report, our customers will have all the information they need to understand their health status,\u201d Feng says. \u201cWe have 100 million people in the United States not going to the dentist annually. Cost, inconvenience, lack of insurance, lack of trust, all of those are huge problems.\u201d Duffy, the COO of Kells, met Feng through a mutual friend; both are Columbia University alumni. He says the U.S. is rife with \u201cdental deserts,\u201d i.e., places where brick-and-mortar dentists\u2019 offices are few and far between. A dental desert could be a low-income urban housing unit or a small town far upstate. A tool like this could serve several of these communities. He says Kells has been in talks with public health agencies and insurance companies seeking services for their patients and clients. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It might seem counterintuitive for an insurance company to voluntarily pay for on-demand dental care for their customers. But Feng says the screenings could save a lot of money in the long term. Studies have linked seemingly mundane mouth maladies like periodontitis and gingivitis to serious illnesses like diabetes and heart disease. \u201cWe want to improve access so we can prompt people to take action early, before bigger problems arise,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n
That\u2019s the vision of entrepreneurs Jie Feng and Kevin Duffy and their tech startup Kells<\/a>. The company has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that analyzes scans of a patient’s mouth, which a dental hygienist completes. Kells aims to provide patients with an on-demand dental screening in minutes, without ever having to set foot in a dentist\u2019s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The platform is still in its pilot stages. Kells conducted the first pilot at its own office in WeWork Gotham Center<\/a> in New York, where it provided dental screenings for 20 people. It will be a few months before a full-scale launch, but Feng says the company is already coordinating with businesses, hospitals, and public clinics to conduct its first commercial screenings. Kells is initially focusing on New York, but Feng and Duffy expect to expand rapidly. The business model is light and efficient; it requires no shops or brick-and-mortar warehouses, only a team of hygienists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/08\/20220718-WeWork-Kells-6291_v1-scaled.jpg\")