Dental care is essential, yet many patients are skeptical about their dentists’ ability to make accurate diagnoses and recommend appropriate treatments. Some dentists may overtreat, causing unnecessary expenses, while others might overlook critical issues that could escalate into significant and costly problems.
Seeking a second opinion can boost patients’ confidence in their treatment plans, but it isn’t always feasible due to time constraints or additional costs.
Dentists recognize this challenge, which is why many practices are increasingly investing in AI-powered software that leverages computer vision to detect dental diseases on X-rays.
Pearl, one of only three startups with FDA clearance to use AI for assisting dentists in making precise diagnoses and providing patients with a “second opinion,” announced on Wednesday that it has raised $58 million in a Series B funding round. This round was led by Left Lane Capital, with participation from Smash Capital, Alpha Partners, and existing investors Craft Ventures and Neotribe Ventures.
Ophir Tanz, Pearl’s founder and CEO, initially developed Pearl within GumGum, a computer vision startup serving sports and advertising industries, which he co-founded in 2007. GumGum aimed to expand its machine learning capabilities into healthcare. Tanz, whose father was a dentist, identified dental care as a field that could significantly benefit from AI-powered diagnostics. Pearl spun out of GumGum in 2019.
According to Tanz, AI can standardize dentists’ interpretations of X-rays, and there is a significantly larger dataset of dental images available for training AI models compared to other body parts.
Pearl claims that dentists using its diagnostic software see a 30% increase on average in patients agreeing to recommended treatments. Tanz explained that Pearl helps patients visualize their dental issues more clearly than traditional X-rays, but the tool is not intended to replace the dentist’s judgment.
“We are highlighting areas of interest, we’re providing recommendations, but it’s up to the doctors to check things clinically and make a final call,” Tanz said.
Pearl’s revenue surged by 458% in 2023, and Tanz expects the company to continue its rapid growth.
“We believe this will be an absolute standard of care globally in, I used to say, five years,” he stated. “Now I think it will be in three years. There’s a massive amount of global adoption now.”
Pearl competes with two other startups that have received FDA clearance for similar capabilities: Video Health and Overjet, which raised $53 million in a Series C funding round at a $550 million valuation in March.
