The Future of Artificial Intelligence in Dentistry
In the past two decades, the world has made tremendous advances in technology and has affected many aspects of human life. Dental health has also benefited from technological advances. The intelligent toothbrush, virtual reality, laser technology, and 3D printing have fundamentally changed the dentistry landscape.
The next big topic in dentistry will be the use of artificial intelligence in diagnostics and treatment.
In dentistry, AI is used for a wide variety of applications. For example, it is used in voice commands such as DEXvoice.
DEXvoice, created by Simplifeye and DEXIS is the “Alexa” for the dentist. DEXvoice is able to pull up things like x-rays, patient records and charts. The DEXvoice solution creates a “hands-free” approach and can ultimately speed up the work of a dentist, as the technician or assistant does not have to constantly try to find documents, x-rays and diagrams on the computer. It also makes the work area cleaner and safer as there is no need to put on and take off gloves to use the computer.
Anyone who has been treated for tooth decay by the dentist knows how painful the process can be. Isn’t it great if artificial intelligence can help make the treatment fast and less painful?
Interpreting X-rays and properly planning treatment are some of the most important skills a dentist must master. Still, they remain some of the most difficult skills to develop, especially because much of the images are not clearly visible with the naked eye. At the moment, AI is helping with caries detection.
ParallelDots, an AI company, launched a cloud-based AI application to detect cavities on dental x-rays. They named this new clinical device Dentistry.AI. The device contains thousands of X-ray images that serve as a data set.
The AI algorithm is trained to recognize patterns from this large amount of data. Another Industry 4.0 technology, blockchain, guarantees this data’s immediacy and validity to all the system participants.
The correct interpretation of X-ray and 3D images requires a lot of experience, and the AI assistant makes work a lot easier, as millions of images have already been evaluated. The artificial intelligence algorithm, trained with thousands of X-ray images, achieves a high degree of accuracy in predicting tooth decay.
The AI has also brought us a smart assistant – the ChairFill program developed by MMG Fusion – that can help optimize dental practices schedule by contacting patients to coordinate treatments that have not yet been completed.
On the one hand, it is about finding out which types of patients dentists need at what times to fill the calendars as best as possible, on the other hand, it is about contacting and coordinating these patients.
The program works like an intelligent assistant. It can also be connected to the marketing system to start new patient marketing campaigns. Profit maximization strategies and algorithms are examined to determine which campaign is running and who it is aimed at.
While these advances in dental care provide an outlook on what may be possible in the future in this area, some experts in the field such as Dr. Sunali S. Khanna and Prita A.
