I run dental days at a small animal clinic in the suburbs. Lots of dogs. Spicy cats. Coffee that tastes like rubber gloves. You get it. February is our busy month, and I was tired of squinting at tiny roots on dental X-rays while the beeper kept beeping. So I tried Nerovet AI Dentistry (more on their official site).
I didn’t think I’d like it. I thought it would slow me down. Funny thing—it didn’t.
If you want every gritty detail beyond this quick rundown, my extended breakdown is here.
What It Is (in plain words)
Nerovet is an AI tool that reads pet dental X-rays. It labels teeth for you. It flags bone loss, resorptive lesions, and roots that might be hiding. It builds a dental chart and a simple client report with pictures. That last part matters, because pictures sell care better than my long speeches ever did. And if you ever freeze when trying to craft that first line to a pet parent, my recent review of Swipey AI has a few tricks worth borrowing.
If you’re curious about the broader world of veterinary AI tools, the annual Botprize competition is a quick way to see what’s coming next. For a look at how AI handles topics that are a bit more, well, adult, see my candid test of NSFW prompts.
Setup: Not Fancy, but Fine
We run Cornerstone at the front desk and store images on a local server. For clinics that prefer to outsource interpretation entirely, services such as RapidRead Dental can send radiographs to boarded specialists instead of using on-site AI. The Nerovet rep helped me connect their bridge to our dental X-ray software. It took about 45 minutes. We did a short Zoom training. I clicked through most of it while hand scaling a Yorkie. Don’t do that, by the way.
We had one hiccup with our firewall, so images didn’t upload for an hour. Quick fix. Then it was smooth.
Cost for us was a monthly fee. Ours was in the mid-300s. No surprise charges so far.
Real Cases That Won Me Over
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Case 1: Pickles, a 9-year-old orange cat with dragon breath. Nerovet flagged tooth resorption on her lower left side—teeth 307 and 308. I saw vague lines, but the heat map lit them up like someone took a highlighter to the bone. We extracted both. Her owner cried happy tears when she saw the before-and-after images. I felt that one.
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Case 2: Moose, a goofy Lab who eats rocks. Nerovet called out 35% bone loss on the lower right molars. I thought it was less. I probed again—yep, it was right. We scaled, did open root planing, and set up a recheck. Moose kissed me with a wet nose. Worth it.
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Case 3: A tiny Pomeranian with a slab fracture on the upper fourth premolar. The AI suggested a retained root tip on the back half. I almost missed it. We changed the angle and took a second film. There it was—a thin, mean little shard. Out it came.
Time-wise, we shaved off minutes. Charting used to take me 10–12 minutes per mouth. Now it’s more like 4–6. Less anesthesia time. Less stress. My shoulders thank me.
The Good Stuff
- It spots small things, fast. I still check. But I miss less.
- Tooth labels pop up right on the image. No more guessing numbers.
- The client report is clean. Photos with color marks. Folks say “Oh, I see it now” and say yes more often. Our dental acceptance bumped up by about 15–20% over two months.
- New grads love it. They feel less alone on the tough angles.
- It pushed me to take better radiographs. That was a surprise.
The Rough Edges
- Brachycephalic dogs (hello, Frenchies) confuse it sometimes. Root overlap can fool the AI. I learned to take a second angle and move on.
- It threw a few false positives for periapical lucency on noisy films. Grainy images make it jumpy.
- When our Wi-Fi hiccups, uploads lag. Not often, but it happens.
- It doesn’t replace probing. Gum tells truths the film can’t.
- The monthly cost stings if you don’t do many dentals.
Little Things That Helped
Here’s what made it easier in real life:
- Take two angles on tricky teeth. The AI gets smarter with cleaner views.
- Turn on their overlay after the full mouth series, not during. It kept me moving.
- Keep a simple naming habit. We use “PetName_DentalDate_Tooth.” Sounds boring. Saves time.
- Don’t skip your own notes. I add “watch” tags on borderline teeth. Helps at the recheck.
A Quick Scene From Our Tuesday
Coffee. Monitor beeping steady. My tech, Jamie, holding a sweet old beagle. I’m looking at the screen. Nerovet highlights a faint dark halo over a root apex. I’m not sure. I probe. There’s a pocket. That tiny moment—quiet, then “Oh, there it is”—that’s the real win. Not because the machine was perfect. Because it nudged me to look again.
Who Will Like It (and Who Might Not)
- Great for: busy clinics that do 10 or more dentals a week, new grads, mobile dentists who want fast reports, shelters trying to triage lots of mouths.
- Maybe not worth it: low-volume clinics, folks who take films only now and then, or anyone without steady internet.
What I Wish It Did Better
I’d love a quick offline mode when our network sulks. Also, a “teaching” view that shows why it flagged a lesion in plain words, not just colors. We do have a couple of Spanish-speaking clients; a report option in Spanish would be amazing.
Final Call
For clinicians who want more brutally honest, in-the-trenches reviews of vet-tech gear beyond dentistry, the field-tested write-ups at Chad Bites are packed with side-by-side comparisons, pricing pointers, and workflow tweaks you can steal to make smarter buying decisions.
Would I keep Nerovet AI Dentistry? Yes. For us, it’s a 4.3 out of 5. It saves minutes, catches small stuff, and helps clients say yes. If dental month hits you like a freight train, you’ll feel the difference.
Running back-to-back dentals has me craving quick, efficient ways to connect with people outside the clinic too. If your social life could use the same time-saving boost, the high-energy meet-ups at Speed Dating Rockville Centre can introduce you to a dozen new faces in a single evening, sparing you endless swiping and giving you a fun, low-pressure reboot to your dating routine.
You know what? My coffee still tastes like gloves. But my dental days feel lighter. I’ll take that win.