On the homepage of this public-facing website you’ll find a Dental Pain Assistant, along with a few other tools.
These assistants use large language models (LLMs) — and in my case, they’re mainly powered by the large library of dental videos I’ve produced over the years. Interestingly, the results can be surprisingly good: the answers often reflect the same sensible, practical advice I’d give in person (and sometimes even read better than content I’ve spent hours polishing!).
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These assistants use large language models (LLMs) — and in my case, they’re mainly powered by the large library of dental videos I’ve produced over the years. Interestingly, the results can be surprisingly good: the answers often reflect the same sensible, practical advice I’d give in person (and sometimes even read better than content I’ve spent hours polishing!).
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The guidelines used here were developed by the American Dental Association and the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
There have been no major changes in how we provide immediate relief for dental pain over the past 40 years. While toothbrushes and toothpastes have improved significantly, these advances have been offset by changes in our diet over the same period. |
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In the summer of 2025, I worked with a postgraduate computer science student to try to build a dedicated dental pain chatbot. It was a great learning experience, but we didn’t quite get it working as intended. This current version is my own more recent attempt.
It follows Scottish dental pain guidance and the same evidence-based approach many of us relied on during COVID. And it highlights something important: with the right focus, we can build simple, reliable digital health tools that help people quickly and safely.
Despite this, oral health still lacks the kind of clear long-term strategy it deserves.
It follows Scottish dental pain guidance and the same evidence-based approach many of us relied on during COVID. And it highlights something important: with the right focus, we can build simple, reliable digital health tools that help people quickly and safely.
Despite this, oral health still lacks the kind of clear long-term strategy it deserves.
When I created my dental app around eight years ago, I used to email patients their BPE score, encouraging them to check it using the tools and scoring system in the Teeth4Life app.
Patients could enter their personal risk factors, with the aim of encourage their cleaning and where possible, adjust their habits to improve their gum health over time.
The same risk factor gave a traffic light score for mouth cancer, which I never mentioned, it was like an extra service as few like to think of cancer.
It certainly wasn’t perfect, but it followed the academic advice I’ve received over the years — advice that has remained fairly consistent, even though the technology we could be using has moved on dramatically.
Patients could enter their personal risk factors, with the aim of encourage their cleaning and where possible, adjust their habits to improve their gum health over time.
The same risk factor gave a traffic light score for mouth cancer, which I never mentioned, it was like an extra service as few like to think of cancer.
It certainly wasn’t perfect, but it followed the academic advice I’ve received over the years — advice that has remained fairly consistent, even though the technology we could be using has moved on dramatically.
