Contact Point PodcastWe're Not Taught To Be Radiologists: Dr Alex Sanders On How AI Is Solving Dentistry's Diagnostic Gap
From 1,500 employees and 120 pediatric dentists to building one of the most talked about AI platforms in global dentistry. Dr Alex Sanders is the founder and CEO of Diagnocat, a dental AI company that processes millions of radiographs and CBCTs across Europe, the US, and beyond. He's also the owner of one of Russia's largest dental groups, a practice he bootstrapped from a $120,000 loan into a multi-site healthcare organisation that now runs without him. In this conversation with Simon, he unpacks what that journey teaches you about management, mistakes, and why the next revolution in dentistry might not be another gadget. They go deep on why AI was controversial when Diagnocat launched, how CBCT analysis became the entry point, and why treatment acceptance sits at 15% across most practices globally. Alex explains why he started with 3D instead of 2D, why the software now processes a scan in under three minutes, and why he thinks agentic AI will be the thing that finally closes the gap between diagnosed disease and treated disease. He covers the role of transcription in improving communication, why doctors miss what they don't know, the airway tumour one user found by accident, and why he believes autonomous agents will manage patient populations proactively within two years. They also talk about why he spent millions bootstrapping instead of raising venture capital, the Harvard professor whose book changed how he manages teams, why robots are getting affordable but still can't work autonomously, the Chinese humanoid he bought for experimentation, why attention is the real competition, and why learning what you want is now more important than knowing how to get it. Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction: From USSR Dentist to Global AI Founder 00:03:51 Building a 1500-Employee Dental Empire in Russia 00:08:58 The Secret to Exiting Operations: Management as a Profession 00:11:08 The Diagnocat Origin Story: Seeing What Doctors Miss 00:13:27 Meeting the Technical Co-Founder & Silicon Valley Rejection 00:18:28 Bootstrapping Millions: Why No Investors Means Full Control 00:21:55 From 3D CBCT to 2D: Building the First AI Dental Platform 00:29:06 The Business Case for AI: Trust, Acceptance Rates & Communication 00:36:07 ChatGPT Changed Everything: The Generative AI Pivot 00:38:23 Transcriptor: Recording Consultations & Evaluating Communication 00:45:31 Agentic AI: The Future of Autonomous Dental Assistants 00:53:33 The 15% Problem: Why 85% of Diagnosed Disease Goes Untreated 00:57:41 Treatment Planning: The Philosophy Problem AI Can't Solve Yet 00:59:13 Diagnocat 360: Learning Your Practice's Treatment Philosophy 01:05:12 Airways, Tumors & Incidental Findings: The Power of Full-Volume CBCT 01:07:20 Radiation Regulations & the Ontario Problem: CBCT Barriers 01:09:53 Scanner Quality: Operator Error Beats Brand Every Time 01:11:23 The AI Consultancy Model: Competing for Attention, Not Just Market Share 01:18:18 Claude, QA & Engineering: 60% of Testing Now Done by AI 01:21:14 The Revolution Cycle: Why Dentistry Has Been Flat for a Decade 01:25:08 Robots, Humanoids & the Next Innovation Wave 01:32:50 Learning to Think with AI: What to Want, How to Ask, How to Understand 01:36:21 Social Media, Attention & the Meta Competition ▬▬ ABOUT THE GUEST ▬▬ Dr Alex Sanders is the founder and CEO of Diagnocat, a global dental AI platform specializing in radiographic analysis, CBCT interpretation, and clinical workflow automation. He is also the owner of one of the largest dental groups in Russia, with over 1,500 employees and more than 120 pediatric dentists. He studied at Moscow Dental University and completed executive education at Harvard Business School. ▬▬ ABOUT THE HOST ▬▬ Dr Simon Chard is Past President of the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, co founder of PÄRLA, and principal of Rothley Lodge Dental Practice. ▬▬ FOLLOW CONTACT POINT ▬▬ YouTube: @contactpointpodcast Instagram: @contactpointpodcast Listen on Apple, Spotify and all podcast apps.
