Nipun Kathuria and Dr Mark-Anthony Shepherd. Image: Smile Genius
Based in Dublin, Smile Genius is helping dentists make clear aligners more accessible to patients and monitor treatment without hassle.
Long, seemingly unending waiting lists are a nightmare in the medical world and an appointment with an orthodontist is no exception. Dental research suggest much of the adult population needs orthodontic treatment but only a lucky few actually have access to it.
“This is because most of the time your dentist will refer you to an orthodontist who will put you on months of waiting lists (because there are only a few of them) or charge two to three times more than what a general dentist might charge for such treatments,” said Nipun Kathuria, co-founder of dental software start-up Smile Genius.
Kathuria started Smile Genius with Dr Mark-Anthony Shepherd in 2021. While Kathuria is a software engineer with an MBA from Trinity College Dublin, Shepherd is a qualified dentist who has previously co-founded his own clinic and helped to scale companies in Ireland and abroad.
Letting technology take care of admin
Smile Genius pitches itself as a start-up on a mission to “make smiles more affordable”.
The idea is to simplify the launch and management of clear aligners for dentists by connecting dental clinics, aligner manufacturing labs and patients so that more of them can offer the highly customised product to their patients.
“By offering these new cosmetic services, dentists can earn up to five times more than their current hourly earnings as well as save three to four hours on admin tasks by using our all-in-one platform,” Kathuria told SiliconRepublic.com.
“The platform reduces time-to-market for clinics looking to introduce clear aligners and optimises treatment management for existing businesses. It also allows the clinical staff to focus on treating patients and not on admin tasks that technology can take care of.”
Built on the AWS cloud, Smile Genius has three components to its technology.
The first is a clinic portal that allows the dentist to manage individual patient cases. Each dentist then has the choice of partnering with any global aligner manufacturing lab, which has access to a lab portal for prescription and order access.
A third, consumer-facing component is the company’s app “where the best part of the product’s magic happens”, according to Kathuria. Available on iOS and Android, the patient monitoring app allows users to engage with dentists during the treatment, review their treatment plans and update their progress.
Eyes on the UK and US
Kathuria has previously led customer strategy and relationship management at DAA, Brown Thomas and Arnotts. He also founded Technik, working with SMEs in digital transformation, making his partnership with dental expert Shepherd a perfect combination for leadership at Smile Genius.
“The goal is to see the Smile Genius platform being used by most dental clinics and new clear aligner businesses globally in the next few years,” Kathuria added.
Still in its early stages, the start-up expects to be live with businesses across Ireland, the UK, Israel, Jamaica and the US this month. It also has plans to “test the appetite of the market” in India while it focuses on the UK and US and looks to secure seed investment.
“We plan to build our customer-facing team here in Ireland in the coming years which will include sales, marketing and customer success roles,” Kathuria said. “Smile Genius is also building its advisory board with some great influential industry people to be added and announced in the coming months.”
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