Automated diagnosis using artificial intelligence a step forward for preventive dentistry: A systematic review

Abstract

Background. Early diagnosis and monitoring the evolution of the patients is required to be able to have effective preventive attitudes. An easy and cost-effective way of diagnosis is needed for this purpose. The aim of the study was to evaluate the AI level of use in dentistry diagnosis and the fields of its applicability especially for early diagnosis purposes. A secondary objective was to point out the measured performances for automated AI diagnosis by comparison with standard diagnosis procedures. Material and methods. A comprehensive electronic search was performed in November 2022 through PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. The following keywords were used to search the databases: (”Artificial Intelligence” OR ”neural network” OR ”Deep learning” OR “Machine learning”) AND (”Dentistry” OR “Dental medicine”) AND (” periodontal disease” OR ”periodontics” OR ”Carious lesions” OR ”oral cancer” OR ”restorative” or “early diagnosis”). The risk of bias (RoB) of the included studies was assessed using PROBAST tool. Results. A total of 334 publications were collected after searching the databases. For 218 remaining publications the title and the abstract were assessed. The reviewers agreed to continue with 69 studies for full text assessment. Because 49 studies had not completely fulfilled the inclusion criteria only 20 publications were included in the final analysis. AI automatic data processing for diagnostic purposes was implemented in the field of dental radiology, oral pathology, restorative dentistry, pedodontics, oncology, endodontics, and periodontics. Conclusion. AI based automatic diagnostic is a powerful and reliable tool that has a great future potential for different fields of dental medicine like periodontal disease, oral cancer, and carious lesions.