How AI Dentistry Is Transforming Dental Solutions

Bringing healthcare to dental patients

AI Dentistry and Detection of Dental Disease

There are a variety of dental specialties. They include, but are not limited to:

Operative dentistry

Oral and maxillofacial surgery

Orthodontics

Periodontics

Prosthodontics

The most common use of AI dentistry is to detect pathologies like bone loss and dental caries (tooth decay).

Detection is done through radiographic or optical imaging like 2-D and 3-D X-rays, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). AI helps by finding the slightest deviations to the patient's mouth and jaw structure. Dental professionals can then make a diagnosis by analyzing the visual images.

Diagnosis in the early stages is very beneficial. Studies using AI for tumors and cancer detection have shown accuracy at similar or even better levels than dentists. AI-powered solutions can:

Allow providers to make informed clinical judgments faster.

Decide the best modalities for patients.

Eliminate unnecessary procedures.

Using AI Dentistry in Dental Design

Prosthodontics is the design, manufacturing, and fitting of artificial replacements for teeth and other parts of the mouth. AI is ideal for solving problems in the specialty. Dentists can combine it with computer-aided design (CAD) and manufacturing (CAM) when designing onlays, inlays, crowns, and bridges. These prosthetics can be created with high accuracy and tailor-fit to the patient's case.

Also, AI algorithms have been designed to predict treatment results. They can simulate the changes in the patient's appearance via pre- and post-treatment facial imaging. Dental providers can then present the images to the patient for information and reassurance.

AI and Teledentistry

Teledentistry is a subspecialty of telehealth. Providers using it can give patients dental consultation and treatment planning over remote distances.

Teledentistry can be a lengthy and involved process. While patients can, for example, send images of their oral health issues to their dentists, they may have to do reshoots because the photos may not be apparent or taken at the wrong angle. This back-and-forth exchange can sometimes take days to determine whether a patient is eligible for treatment.

The result? Patients may abandon the consultation in frustration. Or the delay in diagnosis can potentially worsen their issue.

AI dentistry can speed up the process. How?

It can power the image processing and recognition software to guide the patient to take a photo correctly.

It can extract the needed information from the images and present it to the dentist.

Either use drastically increases the success rate of each teledentistry consultation.

Australian dentists are already using an image recognition tool called DentalMonitoring in this fashion. The AI analyzes the teeth screening sent by the patient's smartphone. Afterward, a detailed list of its findings – the patient's gum health, teeth health, teeth alignment, etc. – is generated shortly afterward for the dental health provider to review.

Stress Release through AI Dentistry

Finally, AI can deal with many of the repetitive tasks. For dentistry, there are two major ways.

First, the AI can deal with many typical back-office tasks. It could, for example:

Use machine learning (ML) to track patients' progress and treatment through the provider's dental practice software like EMR.

Allow office administrators to flag patients at risk of skipping appointments, missing payments, or failing to keep up with treatment plans.

Make scheduling and rescheduling appointments a breeze to perform. The same is true with proactively sending appointment reminders.

Ensure a healthy cash flow by decreasing the uncertainty of patient treatment and increasing case acceptance. The result is the minimization of disputes and denials by insurance companies and/or governmental health agencies.

The second method is automating many of the dental providers' workflows. AI can be integrated with voice activation to control dental medical devices and equipment like medical-grade monitors. For example, the dentist could bring up the patient's latest X-ray via vocal commands.

This allows practitioners to multitask, leading to more effective use of their – and the patient's – time in the chair.

Finally, AI dentistry can be extended into the dental chair itself. Properly equipped ones can provide helpful information such as patient weight and height, a patient's breathing rate, and provide tracking of tell-tales of their anxiety levels. All these and more save dentists a few extra steps. This frees them to concentrate on treating pressing dental issues.

Voice commands also simplify infection control since there's no need to touch any screen surfaces.

Closing Thoughts

AI dentistry brings artificial intelligence into oral medicine (dentistry). Dentists tap AI dentistry to assist them in a wide range of patient care tasks, from analysis of pathologies to record keeping.

Contact an expert at Cybernet if you want to learn more about AI's potential in dentistry and why this works best with medical computers and tablets.