As the AI race in dentistry grows more heated, a startup called Perceptive is aiming to automate each stage of a dental visit, from imaging to treatment recommendations to the actual surgical procedure.
The Boston startup, which recently came out of stealth mode, announced on Tuesday that it has received $30 million in funding to work on a dental system that includes a hand-held imaging machine, an AI algorithm to help diagnose and suggest treatment, and a surgical robot to complete the procedure. Investors include Pacific Dental Services, Y Combinator, and Ed Zuckerberg, a dentist who also happens to be the father of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Perceptive also announced that it has tested the device on its first patient in Barranquilla, Colombia. But it has not yet released any clinical data that it will ultimately need to submit to the Food and Drug Administration before selling the product to dentists. Perceptive CEO Chris Ciriello said the company is still around five years away from submitting to the FDA.
