Dr. John Won, the principal surgeon of POMS Facial Surgery in its offices in Raleigh and Elizabeth City in North Carolina, provides nonsurgical oral and facial care solutions as well as out-patient oral and maxillofacial surgery. He has been an oral surgeon for over 15 years. At present, Dr. John Won is involved in integrating blockchain technology into his dental practice.
Blockchain technology is an innovative tool that was first used by the finance and banking sector to handle and manage enormous amounts of data. Today, the healthcare industry, particularly dental medicine, has also embraced blockchain technology. The first blockchain solution used in dental practice is called Dentacoin and was introduced in 2017.
Dentacoin offers three functions. One function is called Dentacoin Assurance, which operates out of a smart contract between the dentist and the patient whereby the patient can access preventive dental care to make his or her treatment sustainable. The smart contract involves a small amount of monthly fees which allows the patient to receive ongoing treatment and the dentist to receive an ongoing stream of income.
Another function is called Dentacare App, which works like an aftercare app, provides the patient with instructions on how to maintain proper oral care and hygiene. Through this interactive app, patients can access dentists for assistance, including follow-up treatments so that patients can develop positive dental habits that can last for a lifetime. The third function, called DentaVox Surveys, serves as a market research platform where the patient provides valuable feedback by filling in questionnaires related to his or her dental care experience.
Dentacoin helps dentists in the efficient management and storage of patient records since these records are managed by blockchain. Also, the immutable characteristics of blockchain eliminate the incidence of false claims and other fraudulent data access.
