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Jennifer Reif: You are listening to the
Breaktime Tech Talks podcast, a bite-sized
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tech podcast for busy developers where
we'll briefly cover technical topics, news
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snippets, and more in short time blocks.
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I'm your host, Jennifer Reif, an
avid developer and problem solver
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with special interest in data,
learning, and all things technology.
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Hello, and welcome back
to Breaktime Tech Talks.
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Today I have with me Dr. Robert Kerstein,
who is gonna talk to us a little bit
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about how technology and dentistry
overlap and some of the things that
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technology is doing in his world.
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So welcome, Dr. Kerstein, and thank
you so much for being on the podcast.
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Well, thank
you, Jennifer, for having me.
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Jennifer Reif: Would you give listeners
just a bit of background about
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yourself, about the work that you do?
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Any highlights?
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Robert Barry Kerstein:
Well, I'm a prosthodontist.
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But a prosthodontist is a reconstructive
crown and bridge expert, making
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teeth, replacing teeth for people.
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I was fortunate enough to be exposed
to the original T-Scan 1 bite computer,
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which was actually something that
preceded all of us having computers.
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This was a treatment tool, a diagnostic
and treatment tool that allowed you
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to measure bite force and pressure
on people's teeth as they bit down
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and chewed around, and that was a
major advance over paper and ink.
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I started studying this technology
i- in those years while I was faculty
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at Tufts University School of Dental
Medicine, and I used a lot of dental
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students, class after class after class,
and I developed all kinds of treatment
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protocols using this T-Scan bite computer,
which the company, Tech Scan Inc.,
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has, many times over, re-engineered.
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So that was T-Scan 1 in 1984.
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We're up to T-Scan 10 today.
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And, it's a very sophisticated device.
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It pressure maps patients' bite forces
and shows how, well or poorly your teeth
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hit, how much friction is on them, which
is a very damaging element, why some
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teeth have gum recession and others don't.
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You know, there's a lot of clinical
applications like controlling forces
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on implants and th- they've all been
evolved out of the original T-Scan
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technology, which I started with in 1984.
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So for me, it's now 42 years
that I've been researching, and
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publishing about the T-Scan.
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Jennifer Reif: That was actually
one of my next questions was how
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is that technology being used?
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And you mentioned a little bit
how it's measuring the, the
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pressure and the bite force.
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A little bit on, like, implants, maybe
how long they might hold up and things
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like that, but what are some just everyday
things that this stuff is being used for?
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Well,
it's an everyday tool in a, in
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a trained professional's hands
to measure problems in the bite.
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So, a problem can be a sore
tooth that the patient every
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time they chew, it hurts them.
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You can measure that tooth while they're
chewing on the sensor, and you can find
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out why there's a, a bad contact or which
part of the tooth is causing this pain.
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Or you can use it to stop cold sensitivity
by adjusting the bite in specific ways.
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It treats TMJ.
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… I shouldn't say that.
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It doesn't treat.
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The dentist does the treatment, but the
of the great applications is it can be
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used in TMJ patients to stop TMJ from
being a chronic problem, so the person
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doesn't have to manage their life.
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TMJ is a bite problem,
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Jennifer Reif: Okay
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Robert Barry Kerstein: and it takes
a very sophisticated approach, but
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computer analysis makes it very possible.
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And then f- you mentioned
implants, exactly.
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The durability of implants,
how long they stay in the bone.
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We have a big problem in implant
dentistry, which some of you listeners may
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already, already have experienced, where
they got an implant, something made, and
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then it broke or cracked or came loose.
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That's because the articulating paper
and ink that people use to adjust
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the bite is a terrible, method.
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It doesn't measure anything.
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It doesn't tell anything at all about
pressure mapping or force or timing.
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And, alternatively, the T-Scan sensors,
they're used all over the world to
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pressure map things like brake pads and
tire tread and, and, engine gasket seals,
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and, they're used in aerospace, robotics.
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They're very sophisticated devices.
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So they measure all kinds of things,
and then you can take that information
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from the patient, you know, by recording
their bite ways, and then adjust their
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bite to fix recession, TMJ problems,
lessen cold tooth sensitivity, as I
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said, put in new dentistry, insert new
implant cases where they last longer
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because the bite forces are managed.
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So you can use it to finish,
orthodontic cases after someone
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finishes moving their teeth, whether
it's Invisalign or with braces.
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A lot of times the bite isn't so
good after the teeth are moved.
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It looks good, It looks really pretty,
but the person has headaches after they
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had orthodontics, or they grind their
teeth after they had orthodontics, and
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those are the things that the T-Scan
can make a g- big difference in, fixing,
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in, in many ways in dental procedures.
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Jennifer Reif: Okay.
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So how do you go from taking the data
that you get from that sensor, and if
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I understand correctly, it's a sensor
that somebody puts in their mouth
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and they just chew around and the
way it maneuvers around the mouth as
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you do that, you can understand where
different parts of the mouth and how
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everything moves and how there might
be problems in certain areas and so on.
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But once you get all that data, how
do you go from those measurements?
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Like, do you use some sort of tools?
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is there like an analysis tool that
kind of surfaces some of those things
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to actually get what's happening?
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Robert Barry Kerstein: It's a very
good, it's a very good question.
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So the data is recorded, specific
things the patient is asked to
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do depending on their problem.
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For example, if they have a sore tooth
to bite on, then you have them bite down
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hard and make the tooth hurt, right?
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Jennifer Reif: Okay.
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Then
you read that tooth's specific
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force profile in the playback.
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So T-Scan records like a movie
of your bite because it's a
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very dynamic thing, the bite.
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And it's not a static entity, meaning,
you know, there's, there's timing of
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how well the teeth come together, timing
how well they come apart when you chew.
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There's a lot of force issues.
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So you basically have analysis tools
in the software that allow you to
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judge the playback and look carefully
at a variety of different things
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that allow you to make intelligent
decisions about the tooth to treat.
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Jennifer Reif: Okay, and that,
that's something that the technology
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gives you is much more precision in
exactly what's going on and where
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to target and to focus over previous
methods of doing this sort of thing.
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Robert Barry Kerstein:
Dramatically improved precision
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Jennifer Reif: Okay.
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Robert Barry Kerstein:
Over traditional methods.
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Absolutely.
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Jennifer Reif: Are the validation methods
then just working with the patient
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specifically, or are there other ways
to validate that the technology is
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measuring what you think it's measuring?
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Well,
it's certainly been tested.
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That's a very good question.
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It's certainly been tested for
its ability to, to reproduce
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force pressure mapping and timing.
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And all, all of the Tekscan sensors, the
ones that are used in your car or the
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ones that are used in athletics or in
aerospace, they're all validated for being
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able to measure these specific things.
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So that research has gone on for
many, many years, since, since
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the 1980s all the way up to today.
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But in terms of the T-Scan itself,
you can look at the output measures
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and see that you made a difference.
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going back to the sore tooth, I
recorded, made the first adjustment,
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I can make another adjustment and
see if the area that was problematic
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has been reduced in force.
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And if it isn't, I can go back and
then I can see in another recording,
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"Oh, yes, now the pressure is relieved.
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How does that feel?
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So the computer has the ability to
show you, let's say in simple terms,
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before and after output measures
that clearly illustrate improvement,
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and that can be one tooth or that
can be all 28 teeth or all 32 teeth.
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So the T-Scan eliminates all that
subjectivity that dentists use and
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greatly improves the process of
isolating problems in someone's bite.
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Jennifer Reif: Right, 'cause
then you're not just trusting
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what the patient explains to you.
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You can actually get exact details
and numbers through the, the
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sensor, and then the data over
time as well, how it changes.
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Exactly.
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Jennifer Reif: Okay.
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Robert Barry Kerstein: And you
can use that, that's a good point.
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You can also use that
data over time point.
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Let's say I made you a fancy implant
smile, and you leave my office
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and you're all happy with the new
bite I gave you with the T-Scan.
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When you come back to get your teeth
cleaned in three months or six months,
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I can remeasure you and I can compare
what I had when I gave it to you, and
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if it changed, I can go in and fix
some things that might create damage or
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be less than ideal for the long term.
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And so you have a tremendous
ability to follow the patient and
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see changes in their bite through
their life's history as long as you
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understand how to use the T-Scan
well, which is a, a trained skill set.
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A dentist owning a T-Scan
doesn't mean they use it well.
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They have to be trained to use it well.
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Jennifer Reif: How long does
that training typically take?
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Is it like a course or do
you have to be certified?
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I, I'm not sure of the credentials there.
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Well, we do
certify people in specific aspects
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of it, but it's generally the
training at the chair with patients,
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Jennifer Reif: OK
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Robert Barry Kerstein: whether
it's to be certified or not.
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It's actually taking someone who has
a sore lower molar and showing them
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how to use the data, how to get the
recording correct, how to then find
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the problem place on their tooth, and
then how to go in and adjust that.
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And, and the skills are definitely
learnable, but they're not
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inherent in buying a, a T-Scan.
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So
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Jennifer Reif: Right
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Robert Barry Kerstein: why it's very
important that a doctor having a
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T-Scan, if they haven't had chairside
training, they're probably not
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gonna be that effective with it.
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Jennifer Reif: Sure.
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It's kinda like developers needing
to actually get experience with
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hands-on keyboard, you know, building
stuff and working with it before
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they can actually see the results.
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Same thing with this
particular technology as well.
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You really have to explore and work
through it and figure out, oh, the
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tips and tricks of how to operate
it before you can do it well.
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Very much so.
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Jennifer Reif: So after four decades
of working with this technology, what
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are some of the technical limitations
or maybe some unanswered questions that
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you're most interested in looking at next?
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Well,
it's a very interesting question.
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What we've discovered has opened
up a whole new consideration
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about how powerful the bite is.
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So by treating the bite with these
high precision micro adjustments
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and simultaneously measuring muscle
activity, head and neck muscle
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activity, we've discovered that the
bite is actually talking to the brain
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every time someone puts their teeth
together, and there's many neurologic
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implications of bite therapy.
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For example, Meniere's disease,
which is a, unilateral hearing loss.
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We've found that if we treat the bite
to high precision, very often the
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hearing rebounds in those patients.
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It's not necessarily a complete rebound.
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Another example would be eye twitching.
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no one finds anything wrong with their
eye or their eye musculature, and then we
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treat the bite and the eye twitch stops.
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And so the bite function
has incredible reach.
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So to get back to the original answer for
you, exploring this neurologic expanse
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of things that bite function is involved
with has become our new area of research
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Jennifer Reif: Okay.
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I, I was also curious too, this kinda
deviates a little bit, and goes may-
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maybe not entirely off topic, but are
there uses where you're incorporating
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AI in this technology as well now
because of all the recent advancements?
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Well, the
technology has AI in it that allows a
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dentist to click on a button and get
information about certain aspects of the
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bite that they're interested in learning.
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Jennifer Reif: Okay
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Robert Barry Kerstein: And
that speeds up the process,
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Jennifer Reif: Sure
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Robert Barry Kerstein: making
a diagnosis, for example.
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Or, isolating a problem in someone's
bite that the software can detect.
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So the AI part of it is sort of
an ongoing evolution, but it's
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been in there for a, a while.
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The thing about medical devices that,
and this Techscan, the T- I'm sorry,
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the T-Scan falls into this category, is
medical devices are not allowed legally
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to tell you what the output means.
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So a simple example would
be your blood pressure.
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If you had a AI blood pressure cuff, and
my blood pressure was 180 over 70, the AI
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part could say, "Well, Dr. Kerstein has
high blood pressure. Dr. Kerstein has a
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risk for a stroke. Dr. Kerstein has a…"
Nothing, n- none of that can be done
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Jennifer Reif: Right
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Robert Barry Kerstein: in medical devices.
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So the AI, the most a, a blood
pressure cuff could do would say,
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"Th- have a doctor check his blood
pressure. What's going on? Why does
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he have this high blood pressure?"
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Jennifer Reif: Yeah.
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Robert Barry Kerstein: T-Scan has
those kinds of features in it also.
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What's wrong with these teeth?
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Why are they s- have
so much force on them?
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You know, why are they, And then you
go and look in the person's mouth, and
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oftentimes the AI will have pointed out an
area where the person has gum recession,
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Jennifer Reif: Okay
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Robert Barry Kerstein: person has
cracked a bunch of fillings, and the
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teeth are rough, and the gums have
receded and there's loose teeth.
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Jennifer Reif: Ja
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Robert Barry Kerstein: the AI points
you in those directions, but it
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doesn't tell you what's happening.
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Jennifer Reif: Right.
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It can't give a medical
diagnosis because of the,
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Correct.
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Jennifer Reif: the
issues surrounding that.
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That makes perfect sense.
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I ju- I just, I wondered how that was
be- now being incorporated because as you
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said, this technology is decades old now.
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But of course, we've had a lot of
advancements in technology and how
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that has changed over, over the years.
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So I really appreciate your insights and
your perspective on how technology and
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specifically dentistry are coming together
to do some really amazing things, and
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to hopefully help improve people's lives
and their medical state for their mouth.
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So I appreciate your thoughts, and thank
you so much for being on the podcast.
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Robert Barry Kerstein: I appreciate
the opportunity to share the knowledge.
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I think the thing I spoke about
earlier, the neurologic reach
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of the bite, is very important.
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And many of the things in head and
neck, like migraines for example,
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or earaches or facial pain.
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No one's finding any organic disease for
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Jennifer Reif: Sure
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Robert Barry Kerstein: when they
get a scan or a X-ray, are coming
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from the bite, and the bite is
neurologically triggering things.
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So that's our future, how bite
therapy impacts whole body mechanics.
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Jennifer Reif: Well, I can't
wait to see what this does next.
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Thank you
00:00:05,390 --> 00:00:08,910
Jennifer Reif: You are listening to the
Breaktime Tech Talks podcast, a bite-sized
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00:00:08,950 --> 00:00:13,489
tech podcast for busy developers where
we'll briefly cover technical topics, news
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00:00:13,489 --> 00:00:15,749
snippets, and more in short time blocks.
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00:00:16,230 --> 00:00:19,940
I'm your host, Jennifer Reif, an
avid developer and problem solver
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00:00:20,149 --> 00:00:24,100
with special interest in data,
learning, and all things technology.
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00:00:24,607 --> 00:00:27,177
Hello, and welcome back
to Breaktime Tech Talks.
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00:00:27,227 --> 00:00:31,487
Today I have with me Dr. Robert Kerstein,
who is gonna talk to us a little bit
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00:00:31,517 --> 00:00:36,437
about how technology and dentistry
overlap and some of the things that
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00:00:36,497 --> 00:00:38,647
technology is doing in his world.
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00:00:38,877 --> 00:00:42,337
So welcome, Dr. Kerstein, and thank
you so much for being on the podcast.
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Well, thank
you, Jennifer, for having me.
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Jennifer Reif: Would you give listeners
just a bit of background about
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00:00:47,095 --> 00:00:48,695
yourself, about the work that you do?
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Any highlights?
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00:00:50,132 --> 00:00:51,212
Robert Barry Kerstein:
Well, I'm a prosthodontist.
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But a prosthodontist is a reconstructive
crown and bridge expert, making
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teeth, replacing teeth for people.
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I was fortunate enough to be exposed
to the original T-Scan 1 bite computer,
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which was actually something that
preceded all of us having computers.
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This was a treatment tool, a diagnostic
and treatment tool that allowed you
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to measure bite force and pressure
on people's teeth as they bit down
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and chewed around, and that was a
major advance over paper and ink.
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I started studying this technology
i- in those years while I was faculty
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at Tufts University School of Dental
Medicine, and I used a lot of dental
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students, class after class after class,
and I developed all kinds of treatment
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protocols using this T-Scan bite computer,
which the company, Tech Scan Inc.,
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has, many times over, re-engineered.
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So that was T-Scan 1 in 1984.
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We're up to T-Scan 10 today.
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And, it's a very sophisticated device.
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It pressure maps patients' bite forces
and shows how, well or poorly your teeth
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hit, how much friction is on them, which
is a very damaging element, why some
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teeth have gum recession and others don't.
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You know, there's a lot of clinical
applications like controlling forces
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on implants and th- they've all been
evolved out of the original T-Scan
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technology, which I started with in 1984.
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So for me, it's now 42 years
that I've been researching, and
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publishing about the T-Scan.
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Jennifer Reif: That was actually
one of my next questions was how
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is that technology being used?
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And you mentioned a little bit
how it's measuring the, the
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pressure and the bite force.
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A little bit on, like, implants, maybe
how long they might hold up and things
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like that, but what are some just everyday
things that this stuff is being used for?
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Well,
it's an everyday tool in a, in
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a trained professional's hands
to measure problems in the bite.
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So, a problem can be a sore
tooth that the patient every
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time they chew, it hurts them.
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You can measure that tooth while they're
chewing on the sensor, and you can find
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out why there's a, a bad contact or which
part of the tooth is causing this pain.
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Or you can use it to stop cold sensitivity
by adjusting the bite in specific ways.
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It treats TMJ.
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… I shouldn't say that.
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It doesn't treat.
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The dentist does the treatment, but the
of the great applications is it can be
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used in TMJ patients to stop TMJ from
being a chronic problem, so the person
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doesn't have to manage their life.
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TMJ is a bite problem,
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Jennifer Reif: Okay
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Robert Barry Kerstein: and it takes
a very sophisticated approach, but
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computer analysis makes it very possible.
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And then f- you mentioned
implants, exactly.
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The durability of implants,
how long they stay in the bone.
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We have a big problem in implant
dentistry, which some of you listeners may
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already, already have experienced, where
they got an implant, something made, and
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then it broke or cracked or came loose.
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That's because the articulating paper
and ink that people use to adjust
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the bite is a terrible, method.
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It doesn't measure anything.
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It doesn't tell anything at all about
pressure mapping or force or timing.
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And, alternatively, the T-Scan sensors,
they're used all over the world to
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pressure map things like brake pads and
tire tread and, and, engine gasket seals,
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and, they're used in aerospace, robotics.
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They're very sophisticated devices.
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So they measure all kinds of things,
and then you can take that information
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from the patient, you know, by recording
their bite ways, and then adjust their
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bite to fix recession, TMJ problems,
lessen cold tooth sensitivity, as I
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said, put in new dentistry, insert new
implant cases where they last longer
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because the bite forces are managed.
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So you can use it to finish,
orthodontic cases after someone
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finishes moving their teeth, whether
it's Invisalign or with braces.
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A lot of times the bite isn't so
good after the teeth are moved.
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It looks good, It looks really pretty,
but the person has headaches after they
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had orthodontics, or they grind their
teeth after they had orthodontics, and
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those are the things that the T-Scan
can make a g- big difference in, fixing,
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in, in many ways in dental procedures.
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Jennifer Reif: Okay.
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So how do you go from taking the data
that you get from that sensor, and if
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I understand correctly, it's a sensor
that somebody puts in their mouth
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and they just chew around and the
way it maneuvers around the mouth as
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you do that, you can understand where
different parts of the mouth and how
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everything moves and how there might
be problems in certain areas and so on.
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But once you get all that data, how
do you go from those measurements?
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Like, do you use some sort of tools?
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is there like an analysis tool that
kind of surfaces some of those things
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to actually get what's happening?
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Robert Barry Kerstein: It's a very
good, it's a very good question.
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So the data is recorded, specific
things the patient is asked to
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do depending on their problem.
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For example, if they have a sore tooth
to bite on, then you have them bite down
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hard and make the tooth hurt, right?
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Jennifer Reif: Okay.
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Then
you read that tooth's specific
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force profile in the playback.
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So T-Scan records like a movie
of your bite because it's a
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very dynamic thing, the bite.
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And it's not a static entity, meaning,
you know, there's, there's timing of
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how well the teeth come together, timing
how well they come apart when you chew.
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There's a lot of force issues.
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So you basically have analysis tools
in the software that allow you to
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judge the playback and look carefully
at a variety of different things
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that allow you to make intelligent
decisions about the tooth to treat.
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Jennifer Reif: Okay, and that,
that's something that the technology
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gives you is much more precision in
exactly what's going on and where
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to target and to focus over previous
methods of doing this sort of thing.
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Robert Barry Kerstein:
Dramatically improved precision
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Jennifer Reif: Okay.
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Robert Barry Kerstein:
Over traditional methods.
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Absolutely.
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Jennifer Reif: Are the validation methods
then just working with the patient
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specifically, or are there other ways
to validate that the technology is
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measuring what you think it's measuring?
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Well,
it's certainly been tested.
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That's a very good question.
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It's certainly been tested for
its ability to, to reproduce
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force pressure mapping and timing.
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And all, all of the Tekscan sensors, the
ones that are used in your car or the
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ones that are used in athletics or in
aerospace, they're all validated for being
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able to measure these specific things.
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So that research has gone on for
many, many years, since, since
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the 1980s all the way up to today.
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But in terms of the T-Scan itself,
you can look at the output measures
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and see that you made a difference.
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going back to the sore tooth, I
recorded, made the first adjustment,
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I can make another adjustment and
see if the area that was problematic
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has been reduced in force.
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And if it isn't, I can go back and
then I can see in another recording,
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"Oh, yes, now the pressure is relieved.
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How does that feel?
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So the computer has the ability to
show you, let's say in simple terms,
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before and after output measures
that clearly illustrate improvement,
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and that can be one tooth or that
can be all 28 teeth or all 32 teeth.
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So the T-Scan eliminates all that
subjectivity that dentists use and
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greatly improves the process of
isolating problems in someone's bite.
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Jennifer Reif: Right, 'cause
then you're not just trusting
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what the patient explains to you.
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You can actually get exact details
and numbers through the, the
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sensor, and then the data over
time as well, how it changes.
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Exactly.
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Jennifer Reif: Okay.
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Robert Barry Kerstein: And you
can use that, that's a good point.
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You can also use that
data over time point.
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Let's say I made you a fancy implant
smile, and you leave my office
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and you're all happy with the new
bite I gave you with the T-Scan.
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When you come back to get your teeth
cleaned in three months or six months,
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I can remeasure you and I can compare
what I had when I gave it to you, and
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if it changed, I can go in and fix
some things that might create damage or
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be less than ideal for the long term.
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And so you have a tremendous
ability to follow the patient and
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see changes in their bite through
their life's history as long as you
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understand how to use the T-Scan
well, which is a, a trained skill set.
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A dentist owning a T-Scan
doesn't mean they use it well.
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They have to be trained to use it well.
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Jennifer Reif: How long does
that training typically take?
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Is it like a course or do
you have to be certified?
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I, I'm not sure of the credentials there.
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Well, we do
certify people in specific aspects
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of it, but it's generally the
training at the chair with patients,
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Jennifer Reif: OK
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Robert Barry Kerstein: whether
it's to be certified or not.
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It's actually taking someone who has
a sore lower molar and showing them
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how to use the data, how to get the
recording correct, how to then find
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the problem place on their tooth, and
then how to go in and adjust that.
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And, and the skills are definitely
learnable, but they're not
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inherent in buying a, a T-Scan.
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So
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Jennifer Reif: Right
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Robert Barry Kerstein: why it's very
important that a doctor having a
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T-Scan, if they haven't had chairside
training, they're probably not
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gonna be that effective with it.
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Jennifer Reif: Sure.
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It's kinda like developers needing
to actually get experience with
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hands-on keyboard, you know, building
stuff and working with it before
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they can actually see the results.
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Same thing with this
particular technology as well.
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You really have to explore and work
through it and figure out, oh, the
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tips and tricks of how to operate
it before you can do it well.
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Very much so.
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Jennifer Reif: So after four decades
of working with this technology, what
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are some of the technical limitations
or maybe some unanswered questions that
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you're most interested in looking at next?
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Well,
it's a very interesting question.
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What we've discovered has opened
up a whole new consideration
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about how powerful the bite is.
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So by treating the bite with these
high precision micro adjustments
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and simultaneously measuring muscle
activity, head and neck muscle
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activity, we've discovered that the
bite is actually talking to the brain
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every time someone puts their teeth
together, and there's many neurologic
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implications of bite therapy.
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For example, Meniere's disease,
which is a, unilateral hearing loss.
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We've found that if we treat the bite
to high precision, very often the
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hearing rebounds in those patients.
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It's not necessarily a complete rebound.
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Another example would be eye twitching.
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no one finds anything wrong with their
eye or their eye musculature, and then we
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treat the bite and the eye twitch stops.
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And so the bite function
has incredible reach.
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So to get back to the original answer for
you, exploring this neurologic expanse
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of things that bite function is involved
with has become our new area of research
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Jennifer Reif: Okay.
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I, I was also curious too, this kinda
deviates a little bit, and goes may-
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maybe not entirely off topic, but are
there uses where you're incorporating
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AI in this technology as well now
because of all the recent advancements?
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Well, the
technology has AI in it that allows a
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dentist to click on a button and get
information about certain aspects of the
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bite that they're interested in learning.
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Jennifer Reif: Okay
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Robert Barry Kerstein: And
that speeds up the process,
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Jennifer Reif: Sure
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Robert Barry Kerstein: making
a diagnosis, for example.
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Or, isolating a problem in someone's
bite that the software can detect.
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So the AI part of it is sort of
an ongoing evolution, but it's
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been in there for a, a while.
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The thing about medical devices that,
and this Techscan, the T- I'm sorry,
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the T-Scan falls into this category, is
medical devices are not allowed legally
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to tell you what the output means.
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So a simple example would
be your blood pressure.
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If you had a AI blood pressure cuff, and
my blood pressure was 180 over 70, the AI
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part could say, "Well, Dr. Kerstein has
high blood pressure. Dr. Kerstein has a
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risk for a stroke. Dr. Kerstein has a…"
Nothing, n- none of that can be done
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Jennifer Reif: Right
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Robert Barry Kerstein: in medical devices.
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So the AI, the most a, a blood
pressure cuff could do would say,
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"Th- have a doctor check his blood
pressure. What's going on? Why does
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he have this high blood pressure?"
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Jennifer Reif: Yeah.
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Robert Barry Kerstein: T-Scan has
those kinds of features in it also.
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What's wrong with these teeth?
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Why are they s- have
so much force on them?
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You know, why are they, And then you
go and look in the person's mouth, and
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oftentimes the AI will have pointed out an
area where the person has gum recession,
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Jennifer Reif: Okay
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Robert Barry Kerstein: person has
cracked a bunch of fillings, and the
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teeth are rough, and the gums have
receded and there's loose teeth.
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Jennifer Reif: Ja
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Robert Barry Kerstein: the AI points
you in those directions, but it
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doesn't tell you what's happening.
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Jennifer Reif: Right.
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It can't give a medical
diagnosis because of the,
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Correct.
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Jennifer Reif: the
issues surrounding that.
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That makes perfect sense.
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I ju- I just, I wondered how that was
be- now being incorporated because as you
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said, this technology is decades old now.
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But of course, we've had a lot of
advancements in technology and how
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that has changed over, over the years.
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So I really appreciate your insights and
your perspective on how technology and
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specifically dentistry are coming together
to do some really amazing things, and
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to hopefully help improve people's lives
and their medical state for their mouth.
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So I appreciate your thoughts, and thank
you so much for being on the podcast.
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Robert Barry Kerstein: I appreciate
the opportunity to share the knowledge.
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I think the thing I spoke about
earlier, the neurologic reach
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of the bite, is very important.
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And many of the things in head and
neck, like migraines for example,
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or earaches or facial pain.
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No one's finding any organic disease for
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Jennifer Reif: Sure
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Robert Barry Kerstein: when they
get a scan or a X-ray, are coming
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from the bite, and the bite is
neurologically triggering things.
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So that's our future, how bite
therapy impacts whole body mechanics.
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Jennifer Reif: Well, I can't
wait to see what this does next.
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Robert Barry Kerstein: Thank you
