Your dentist has to scour through an immense amount of data as part of your treatment. Radiography, facial scans, and intraoral scans contain significant indicators of oral health concerns, but they can be easy to miss. Recent innovations in dental-focused AI imaging software are making identifying oral health concerns immensely easier. These highly specialized programs are capable of sorting through all these images and pointing out potential concerns to your dentist. This helps ensure that nothing gets missed and, even better, that any developing concerns are caught as early as possible.

How Machine Learning Is Used In Dentistry

If you’re worried that you may be seeing a robot rather than a dentist soon, fear not. These specialized systems are not aiming to replace your dentist. Instead, they’re another tool they have for ensuring that you receive the best care and treatment possible. We’ll be taking a comprehensive look at some of the promising developments coming out of dental AI, including:

• Periodontal disease and dental decay detection
• Oral cancer detection
• Identification and diagnosis of cavities

Dental decay and periodontal disease detection

Having an additional set of “eyes” during an exam can be incredibly helpful. Computer vision devices help to enhance your dentist’s ability to locate, identify, and treat oral health concerns. These systems use specialized techniques, including semantic segmentation and object detection, to find dental decay.

Periodontal disease

Also known as gum disease, this results from bacteria camping out in your teeth and below the gum line. They cause inflammation by attacking this soft tissue and ultimately lead to losing teeth. AI software helps quickly identify these concerns using automated depth probing and a hose of other detection tools. 

Oral cancer detection 

Losing a tooth can be a decidedly unpleasant experience, but it’s nothing when compared to the dangers of oral cancer. Over 10k people passed in 2021 from cancer in the oropharyngeal area and oral cavity alone. This is more tragic because the survival rate for this type of cancer is over 83% when it’s caught early. Less than 30% of cases are caught in their earliest stages.

Detection and diagnosis of dental caries

More commonly known as cavities, caries are the single most common health concern in the United States. When all cavity levels are considered, nearly everyone will develop at least one at some point in their lives. The earlier these concerns are identified, the easier it is to preserve the tooth’s health. CAD systems (Computer-Aided Detection and diagnosis systems) quickly become a standard part of dental clinics. This increases the rate at which early detection occurs and improves outcomes all around.

These are just a few areas that are seeing benefits from the integration of artificial intelligence in the dental office. New developments are making them even more essential for receiving the best care every year.

Is Your Dentist Using AI As Part of Your Dental Care?

Find out if your dentist uses artificial intelligence software as part of their practice. Arrange your next appointment, and they’ll introduce you to these essential pieces of equipment.