Tend’s Playbook for Disrupting Dentistry? It’s All About Tech
The difference in our digitally-driven experience is felt before people even walk in the door.
Tend is disrupting the $156 billion dental industry and expanding nationwide — we just closed out a year of unprecedented 400% growth and now operate in New York City, Washington D.C., Boston, and Atlanta. All told, we now operate 21 dental studios.
The most common question I’m asked as CEO is “What makes Tend different?”
“Disrupt” can be a buzzword in the startup space, but I can share that what sets us apart and acts as the key driver of our growth is technology.
To make a comparison to what we’re doing at Tend, I look at the restaurant industry. Starbucks and Chipotle get valued very differently than other brands in the industry because they invested in a digital front end that outpaces competitors. They have high rates of recurrence that get even stickier because of their tech: people order ahead of time to come in and pick up their coffee or food, and the convenience of the experience helps make sure customers return. These tech-enabled brands are more valuable than counterparts that haven’t invested in digital.
Like these brands, Tend has invested heavily in our tech stack. Being digitally driven is one of the major ways we plan on owning the dental space.
Tend is the first dentist that’s truly digitally driven.
Other dental practices simply aren’t in a position to invest in technology like we are. Independent, mom-and-pop practices don’t have heads of digital product, engineering teams, or a Chief Technology Officer. They don’t have the infrastructure or capital to advance any sort of digitization efforts forward. Meanwhile, the traditional players — the big chains or dental clinics — already have a business model that works for them. They have no reason to disrupt themselves and invest in digitization. As a result, the field is wide open for us.
Practically speaking, our digitally-driven dentistry impacts the patient journey before our members even walk in the door. Members don’t fill out arduous paperwork in crowded waiting rooms on rusty clipboards. Instead, they visit our website, where an easily-navigable online form learns their preferences and the types of services they’re interested in.
Our onboarding and intake flows don’t just ask about insurance and medial records, they help us form a relationship with the member — much like the front-end technology used by Chipotle and Starbucks. We ask about oral health goals and toothpaste preferences so that we can then tailor a first visit to their specific needs. Surprising as it is, this type of care has never existed before in dentistry.
State of the art technology helps our members curate their visits. It also helps them receive better care and make more informed decisions about their oral health.
Of course, elevated technology extends into our clinical operations as well. We use digital x-rays that scan members’ mouths in 90 seconds (and we don’t ask them to bite down on putty when performing impressions). Everything is digitized. As providers talk to our members, voice recognition software automatically charts what’s being discussed. Artificial intelligence also runs in the background, looking at the diagnostic photos that were just taken and acting like an instant second opinion.
This leads to increased transparency for our members. If one of our dentists spots a cavity, we’re able to pull it up on a screen and let our members see it. All of the data from their visits — x-rays, screenshots, all of it — gets loaded onto their online profile, Smart Mouth, which they can access on the Tend app for later reference. There’s also content on the app that explains various procedures, since no one should have to be fluent in dental terminology to understand their oral health.
This increased transparency also applies to the member costs. When I used to go to the dentist, I didn’t know how much I’d be responsible for until after my insurance paid and I got a bill 30–45 days later. At Tend, we tell you how much of each visit is covered by insurance before you even come in. It’s right in our app.
Tend is leading the way in “phygital,” a blend of care in both physical and digital spaces. It’s what makes us a disruptor in the dental industry — and healthcare, overall.
Ultimately, people still have to come to physical spaces to receive most dental services. But at Tend, we use a variety of digital touchpoints to help our members maintain their oral health before, during, and after their visits with us. Much like Warby Parker, which provides certain services on their apps and certain services that must be done in their stores, we’re a leader in “phygital” and able to be there for our members in both the physical and digital worlds.
Every step of the patient journey at Tend is touched by technology that leads to better care, more efficiency, and an overall better experience. Other players in dentistry aren’t interested in competing in the “phygital” world, in the way we’re able to lead in it. This gap between us and our competition will only grow in the future.
Just like restaurants that invested heavily in tech upfront, our digitally-driven dentistry will help us outpace our competitors. It might be a while before we can perform a root canal in the metaverse, but we’re excited to leverage tech to provide better care, every day, for every patient.
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Doug Hudson is the co-founder and CEO of Tend. Born out of the need for systemic change across the dental industry, Doug’s vision is for Tend to set a new standard for oral health, starting at the dentist. As CEO, Doug applies his past experience spearheading numerous high-growth healthcare ventures to bring a hospitality mindset to the dental industry. Previously, he was the founding CEO of SmileDirectClub. Prior to this, he founded and led several consumer health companies including DiabetesCareClub, CPAPCareClub, Inc., and HearingPlanet, Inc. He is currently on the Board of Directors at Modern Age and Relode.com.
