Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the future of dentistry. This new technology presents a different side to what the future consists of in the industry. AI has already begun to incorporate itself into the market and its trajectory will only be upwards, as it takes over many aspects of the normal dental world. It is the next revolution for dentistry so here is what to expect.

How is AI integrated into the current dental workspace and what can AI do, moving forward?

There are 3 main ways AI can be integrated into the dental industry: diagnostics, treatment, and predictions. Here is a brief description of all 3 elements.

Diagnostics: Currently AI is starting to be integrated through x-ray scan diagnostics to spot areas for concern such as caries. Although this software is tremendously useful, it has yet to be consistently used across all clinics as it is a relatively new technology and comes at a cost as well.

Treatment: Once AI has aided in diagnosing a patient, it can provide solutions to resolving the issues. The treatment plan will be based on the information given about the patient to come to the best possible course of action. In the future, treatment may utilise hardware too such as robotic elements controlled by AI to assist in the dental procedure especially when it comes to surgery.

Prediction: AI has started to undertake a new branch of dentistry under predictions too. Instead of just evaluating what the current status of a patient’s oral health is, it can predict what the future holds for their teeth. We have seen this in various applications in the healthcare industry too and AI can now start to reach the level of in-depth knowledge of accurate predictions that many dentists cannot come close to.

Power of AI and how it works: To put the power of dental AI tech into a relevant comparison, take a look at the derivatives of a dentist’s knowledge. Dentists, predominantly, gain knowledge and experience through their work and not the work of others. AI works the opposite to that. AI gathers information from millions of other data sets and studies them for patterns and other relative information. AI has the experience of thousands of dentists combined which is why it is so powerful.  

What does the future look like for dentists?

Utilising AI, dentists will be able to diagnose patients more accurately. A journalist from Reader’s Digest claimed that he went to 50 dentists and almost all of them gave him a different diagnosis. This study is now famous in the dental community especially with patients who feel that dentists are highly inaccurate with their diagnosis and, to a curtain extent, patients who feel this way are correct. However, inaccuracy in diagnosis is not as a result of the dentists not being proficient at their jobs but rather the tools they use to diagnose the patient. A grayscale x-ray is notoriously hard to consistently and precisely locate all areas that are in need of diagnosis. These x-rays typically have over 6000 different shades, but we can only detect, with our eyes, 900 shades of grayscale or in other words 15% of the information shown through an x-ray. Using AI can maximise the ability for a doctor to detect everything needed for oral health in the patients mouth every single time. It allows the dentists to increase efficiency of the workload as it reduces time for detection and treatment analysis. In the future it will further increase efficiency through the ability to play a part in prevention of future oral health issues through prediction. Additionally, in the future, dentists will be helped by robotic hardware to preform procedures faster, more accurately, consistently and with less people needed. The decrease in workload will allow dentists to focus on other aspects of their dental profession such as managerial admin and patient care. Quality and quantity of work will increase, and patient satisfaction will follow in direct proportionality. Access to such technology will only come more and more open to people as it gets in greater quantity and lowered price. The oral health of people in society will be on the rise holistically and oral disease will decrease.

What does the future look like for patients?

As mentioned previously, patients will see greater and better oral health treatment. There will be a lack of overcharging for services not needed and mistakes in the dental practice will decrease. The time spent at the dentists will be efficient and custom but stepping aside from dental AI, what can AI do to improve the clinic as a whole. Looking past diagnosis and treatment, can AI help the patient experience during the time at the clinic. To better visualize these changes, here is how the whole clinic experience changes with the use of a very advanced AI system we are likely to use in the future: A clinic with AI heavily integrated into its system will operate very differently to one in our more analogue and human driven environment so here is what a day in a near future could be like when you visit your dentist. Firstly, the appointment itself would be organized and set by your personal AI assistant in contact with the clinic. There will be no need for a reception, as the patient walks in, they automatically get registered through facial recognition where relevant information about the patient is sent to the dentists such as your medical history. The software then notifies the doctor of their arrival. Once the patient is in the dental chair, AI will help the doctor through diagnostics and treatment. The environment will best accommodate for each patient, making their dental experience tailored and unique. For example, the dental chair can adjust to best fit each person and will be equipped with robotic arms to help the doctor in procedures with precision and accuracy. Additionally, it can use tools we use today such as the suction to make even the smallest of tasks automated. Upon leaving the clinic, AI controlled tablets will deal with payments and scheduling.

Overall, a clinic in the not-to-distance future, with AI integration, can be run by dentists and dentists alone. I hope I opened your eyes to the great possibilities new technologies can bring to the dental workspace for both the patients and doctors.

Farbod Afrassiabi