Artificial intelligence is defined as a branch of computer science that can simulate human intelligence. Essentially, this means a computer can model the same ability of intelligence as a human. Over the recent years, AI has been greatly implemented into the world of medicine and more recently into dentistry.

In dentistry, AI can be used to produce 3D images of a patient’s teeth which allows for deeper analysis of a patient's conditions. It can also be used to predict patterns in decay, and create moulds for retainers. This is important as it reduces patient discomfort and chances of misplacement of moulds. For example, impressions of patients’ teeth are made by mixing water with a powder-like substance called alginate, which is then applied to a u-shaped tray that follows the curve of a patient's teeth. Following this, the patient is asked to bite down onto the tray. This can cause discomfort in a large number of patients, but especially those with a sensitive gag reflex or breathing problems. Using an AI machine such as Dentsply Sirona can reduce these factors.

In medicine, AI has been shown to be able to process large amounts of medical data and giving medical insight into improving a patient’s health. Some key benefits of AI include the analysis of complex medical and health data, as well as giving diagnoses. This can be used alongside doctors’ insight to reduce the chances of a misdiagnosis. AI can also be utilised to speed up the process of drug discovery by identifying biomarkers and targets, therefore speeding up treatment. Furthermore, AI has the ability to reduce errors and costs in medicine. This allows for more funding to be reallocated in other areas in medicine.

On the other hand, there have been many arguments with the use of AI, concerning whether it should be used in medicine/dentistry. Many have held negative views about the use of AI in medicine. This is due to a key limitation: the introduction of AI into the healthcare sector will cause the loss of trained healthcare staff. This decrease of staff will have a major impact as they have worked hard to be in their position and their sources of income could potentially be lost. There are also other issues with using solely AI in medicine, such as an increase of ethical issues and possible fatal accidents. This is because AI is a computer-based software, which means that there are several complications to using it.

However, the benefits of AI outweigh the risks, and it is evident that in the upcoming future AI will be greatly implemented into the majority of healthcare sectors.

Written by Paula

Moderated by Adelene

References: 

Rajpurkar, P., Chen, E., Banerjee, O. and Topol, E.J. (2022). AI in health and medicine. Nature Medicine, [online] 28(1), pp.31–38. doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01614-0.

bbc (2019). What is AI? What does artificial intelligence do? - CBBC Newsround. [online] Bbc.co.uk. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/49274918.