LO
Worker adoptionCognitive automation2025-05-01
DANB's May 2025 survey found one in three dental assistants said their practice already uses AI tools; of those, 60% said their practice uses AI for radiography
Dental assistant / dental nurseoccupation page →
Event date / reported
2025-05-01 · reported 2025-10-29
Evidence stage
Worker adoptionMeasured, large-scale use of a tool for real work, where the decision to use it was the worker's rather than an employer's. It is more than a capability record — the work is real, not a demo — and less than a deployment record, because no employer put it into production, required it, or built a process around it. Weighted `cautious`: `automating` means the machine can do the task AND there are adoption signs, and this is an adoption sign — but usage can be experimental, and much of the measurement comes from a party with a stake, so one record is never enough and two independent ones are. Note who is counting. Vendor telemetry sees this directly and sells the tool, so such a record names that stake in its scope; a statistics agency asking firms whether their workers use AI in tasks sees the same channel with no stake at all, and that is the better source where it exists.
Tasks this bears on
Records, charting and the front desk
Recording findings the dentist calls out, updating charts, scheduling and handling payments and insurance.
Being augmented≈ Platform inference
Where this applies
DANB (Dental Assisting National Board), the US certifying body for dental assistants, states in this article that in a survey it conducted in May 2025 among dental assistants, about one in three respondents said their practice currently uses AI tools in some form; of the practices already using AI, 60% said they had implemented it for radiography specifically. The article separately names radiographs, communication and charting as the most common applications of AI in dentistry in general; it does not present that list as a survey result, and only radiography carries a survey figure. DANB does not disclose a sample size, a response rate, how respondents were selected, or a link to the underlying report -- a related DANB article about an October 2025 summit repeats the one-in-three figure but adds no methodology. The survey's date is given only as May 2025 with no day, so occurredOn is recorded as 1 May 2025. This record is linked only to the records-and-front-desk task, for its charting and communication content; it establishes that a meaningful share of dental assistants report their own practices already running some AI tool, not how much of the recording or front-desk work each practice has moved onto it, and not any change in assistants' numbers or hours.
What this means
DANB says about a third of dental assistants' practices have put some AI tool into use, and the article names radiographs, communication and charting as the most common applications of AI in dentistry -- so this is no longer a page with zero observed adoption.
What it does not yet show
It does not say what share of charting or front-desk work each practice has actually moved onto AI, only that the tool is present somewhere in the practice; it gives no sample size or response rate, and only radiography has a published percentage.
What you can check
Ask your own practice whether it has adopted an AI charting, scheduling or imaging tool, and if so, how much of the recording work it actually does versus how much a person still checks or redoes.
Does it change the assessment?
No. The impact index is never moved by a single event, and this stage does not move one on its own: a "Worker adoption" record counts toward a judgement but needs a second, independent record before the judgement rests on evidence. This one is counted; on its own it changed nothing.
Source
DANB (Dental Assisting National Board) -- How AI is Impacting Dentistry and the Dental Assistant Role · verified 2026-10-16 · VOLO agent loop · interpreted 2026-10-16 · Claude (COO), source re-verification 2026-10-16
Primary source — published by the party that did this, or the authority of record. No co-signature needed.