ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN DENTISTRY BETWEEN TREND AND NECESSITY

Manolea Horia, Roiban Alexandra, Mitruț Ioana, Cirstea Cristinel, Șerbănescu Mircea, Anghel Miruna, Tîrtea Daniel

Department of Dental Materials, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, Romania

Artificial Intelligence refers to the development of computer systems that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as perception, reasoning, and decision-making. 

Although until now the impact of AI on dentistry has been relatively limited, the current advanced capabilities have led to significant improvements. Notable advancements include automatic disease detection through image analysis, enhanced diagnostic accuracy and precision provided by support systems, simulation and evaluation of future treatment outcomes, prediction of oral disease development and prognosis, automatic detection of oral features through image segmentation, and increased resolution of dental images. In particular, AI is primarily revolutionizing dental medical imaging by enabling tooth detection and numbering, the diagnosis of specific diseases, or facilitating imagistic analyses.

Moreover, artificial intelligence applications are transforming the access to information and allow students to prepare assignments and offer quite accurate responses to a wide range of exam questions which are routinely used in their assessments. Large language models such as Chat GPT may be used also to create educational content to contribute to the quality of dental education, while challenges, risks exist, including bias and inaccuracy in the content created or the risk of overreliance.

The results of a statistical study based on the questionnaire method in which the current AI methods used by students for learning are evaluated, as well as the degree of use of these AI learning systems by both students and teachers, are presented in detail.

AI-based applications will revolutionize dentistry and dental education, they should not be seen as a threat but introduced into current practice to benefit from the advantages of these tools and limit the disadvantages and inappropriate use.