Our opinionOne workflow, built all the way down

Our founding belief, and we are happy to defend it: software shaped around one clinical workflow serves that workflow better than software shaped around many. Dentistry is charting, tooth notation, exam structure, consent conversations and treatment plans, all inside a 30-minute appointment, and DigitalTCO was designed around exactly that day by a dentist who lived it.

So here is a test instead of a claim. Both products offer free trials ^{1Heidi Health. UK pricing.heidihealth.com/en-gb/pricing ↗}. Dictate the same appointment into each, something like "MOD composite, rubber dam, Tetric Evo, cured in two-mil increments", and put the two notes side by side. We built this page because we are confident about how that comparison goes. But trust the notes, not the page.

Our opinionFully agentic, not just transcription

DigitalTCO is built as an agent, not a dictation formatter. The AI does not just transcribe and format: it acts. It classifies the appointment, picks your protocol and writes in what was different, audits the finished note with AI insights, builds the letters, tracks the follow-ups, and learns your standards while you work. Most scribes write notes. Ours runs your documentation workflow. We have not found another dental scribe that works this way; if you know one, tell us and we will update this page.

Our opinionSelf-funded, and answerable only to dentists

It is worth saying how we are funded, because it shapes everything. We built something small and useful, dentists paid for it, and DigitalTCO has been profitable from day one. No outside investment, and none needed. That leaves us free to make whatever we believe is the best decision for dentists, answerable only to the law and to our users. And boy, do we answer to our users: suggestions land directly with the founder, and much of this product exists because a dentist asked for it. Nobody outside dentistry has a say in what we build, and nobody is waiting on a return with a timeline attached. We think that is a strength.

Where the money goes matters too. Heidi has raised US$96.6m ^{5TechCrunch. "Heidi Health raises $65M Series B led by Steve Cohen’s Point72." 5 October 2025. Reports founder Dr Tom Kelly, a trauma surgeon, and US$96.6m raised to date.techcrunch.com/2025/10/05/heidi-health-raises-65m-series-b-led-by-steve-cohens-point72/ ↗}; you read about the letter their legal counsel sent us at the top of this page ^{4Kelly, J. (Senior Legal Counsel, Heidi Health). Letter to DigitalTCO, 28 July 2026, stating that Heidi "generates clinical letters (including referral and patient letters) and other documents with one-click generation" and "provides dental-specific templates, including dental examination and procedure templates".}. DigitalTCO is two people, and fully compliant ones: MHRA-registered as a Class 1 medical device, NHS DSPT registered, Cyber Essentials certified, independently penetration-tested, with our complete Compliance & Security Pack published for anyone to read. The difference is what the compliance budget is for. Ours is spent protecting patients and dentists; it has never been spent writing to a competitor. Everything left over goes back into the product. In our opinion that is the better use of dentists' subscription money. Their lawyer sent us a letter. We ship product.

Our opinionThe whole documentation burden, not just the note

The note is half the job. The referral letter, the reply to the specialist, the patient summary, the consent documentation: that is the pile that eats the end of a clinical day. DigitalTCO generates all of it from the appointment itself: one-click referral and patient letters, Molar Mail templated correspondence, Cariespondence freeform dictation, and consent-form PDFs.

Heidi generates letters and consent documentation too ^{4Kelly, J. (Senior Legal Counsel, Heidi Health). Letter to DigitalTCO, 28 July 2026, stating that Heidi "generates clinical letters (including referral and patient letters) and other documents with one-click generation" and "provides dental-specific templates, including dental examination and procedure templates".6Kelly, J. (Senior Legal Counsel, Heidi Health). Email to DigitalTCO, 12 October 2026, stating that "Heidi users can create and customise their own templates" and that "Heidi is able to generate consent documentation from the session".}; where we think the letter engine sets us apart is covered above. What we can tell you about ours: when the patient leaves, the paperwork has already left with them.

Our opinionTwo different ambitions

Heidi's stated ambition is an AI care partner for every clinician, at global scale ^{3"Heidi Secures $65 Million USD in Series B Funding to Accelerate Building an AI Care Partner for Every Clinician." Business Wire, 5 October 2025.businesswire.com/news/home/20251005012225/en/ ↗}. Ours is narrower and, to us, deeper: to be the best AI technology company serving dentists, across everything a dental practice has to document and communicate. It starts with notes; the insights, follow-ups, letters and what comes next are all pointed at the same profession.

Neither ambition is wrong. But when the roadmap has to serve every clinician, dentistry gets a share of it. When it only serves dentists, you get all of it. A colleague put the choice to us like this: a lovely BMW on a beautiful country road, or an F1 car at Silverstone. Both are great drives. One was built for your track. Which one you want is, honestly, personal preference, and that is exactly why this page exists.

Our opinionPricing: built to last, not to bait

Heidi's published UK pricing runs from a genuinely free plan (£0) to Scribe Plus at £45, Clinician at £55 and Practice at £65 per user per month, billed annually, with a monthly billing option and feature availability varying by tier ^{1Heidi Health. UK pricing.heidihealth.com/en-gb/pricing ↗}. That is normal SaaS structure, Heidi is cheaper than us at every tier, and the free tier is a real strength.

We did not pick £99 to win a price war. We worked out what it really costs to give dentists the most accurate notes we can (the next section explains what that involves), and what it will cost to keep doing it properly for years as the models keep moving. £99 a month ($120 in the US) is that number. One plan, everything in it, nothing held back for a higher tier.

A familiar pattern in investor-funded software is to price low to win customers fast, then raise prices once those customers are settled in and switching is painful. We have chosen the opposite: price it honestly from day one, at a level we are already profitable at. The price you join at is the real price, not an introductory one. Free for 14 days, the full product.

Our opinionWhy DigitalTCO costs more: accuracy and efficiency

AI scribes are not yet as accurate as clinicians need. A 2025 study of five ambient scribe platforms in Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Digital Health found that, on average, 26.3% of the key elements in each clinical note were wrong or missing ^{7Anderson TN, Mohan V, Dorr DA, Ratwani RM, Biro JM, Gold JA. "Evaluating the Quality and Safety of Ambient Digital Scribe Platforms Using Simulated Ambulatory Encounters." Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Digital Health, 2025;3(4):100292. Five platforms, fourteen simulated encounters; mean note error 26.3%.doi.org/10.1016/j.mcpdig.2025.100292 ↗}. We do not think that is good enough for a dental record, and closing that gap takes methods, not marketing.

So that is where your subscription goes. Your notes are written from your own approved protocols, so the AI writes less and has less to get wrong. Your notes get a second AI pass that audits them and flags anything that deserves a second look. We pay for the best available models, not the cheapest, and move to new ones within days of release. And everything is included: your protocols built for you, every letter, Molar Mail and the insights.

In our opinion, accuracy and the time it gives back are what a dental scribe should be judged on, and they are what we charge for.

Our opinionIf price is the deciding factor

Then there are cheaper options, including Heidi's free plan ^{1Heidi Health. UK pricing.heidihealth.com/en-gb/pricing ↗}, and that is a fair choice. Before you make it, a few things worth weighing.

£99 a month is about £3.25 a day, and it is a business expense, so it comes off your tax bill. For a dentist, in our opinion, it should not be the number that decides it. If it does feel like a stretch, that is worth looking at, and it is exactly what DigitalTCO is built to help with.

The clue is in the name: Digital Treatment Coordinator, not AI scribe. In our experience, dentists who use it properly find their consultations get better. Accurate notes mean being specific about what you say while you say it, and that makes things clearer for the patient too. Add the rest of the platform: a letter to every exam patient, the built-in follow-ups so your nurse or reception chase the treatment you discussed, a shade recorded on every patient with whitening mentioned, and real attention to your own protocols. Used like that, it should pay for itself.

That is not a guarantee. Talk to it like magic and it will still write your notes. Use it properly and it works on your bottom line as well as your paperwork.