Research Corner - Artificial intelligence - powered innovations in periodontal diagnosis: a new era in dental healthcare
Mr Alex Pollard, our Honorary Editor, has written a precis of a recently published article.
Artificial intelligence - powered innovations in periodontal diagnosis: a new era in dental healthcare
Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to make significant advances across healthcare, but is it ready to play a role in periodontal diagnostics? A recent study published in Frontiers in Medical Technology shows some promising early results.
In this research, a deep learning model was developed to assess radiographic images for signs of periodontitis. Trained on thousands of clinical images, the AI system demonstrated a diagnostic accuracy of 94.4% and sensitivity of 100%, surpassing the performance of experienced periodontists, who achieved 91.1% accuracy and 91.1% sensitivity. Perhaps even more significantly, when non specialists used the AI tool to assist with diagnosis, their accuracy and sensitivity improved to 86.7% and 85.9% respectively, suggesting real potential for levelling diagnostic disparities across clinical settings.
Despite advances in periodontal care, diagnostic variability remains a challenge—particularly in borderline or early-stage cases. The ability of AI to rapidly and consistently identify subtle radiographic changes could support earlier diagnosis and more timely intervention.
Some key take away points:
- Early Detection: AI tools may be able to highlight subtle signs of bone loss or periodontal deterioration before overt clinical symptoms appear, supporting a more preventive model of care.
- Consistency Across Clinicians: With AI assistance, less experienced practitioners demonstrated significantly improved diagnostic performance, helping to reduce variability between clinicians.
- Improved Efficiency: Automated radiographic analysis may free up valuable clinical time, allowing practitioners to focus on patient education and personalised treatment planning.
While the results are promising, the authors highlight that AI should be viewed as an adjunct rather than a replacement for clinical judgement. Successful integration will depend on careful validation in real-world settings and ensuring that AI recommendations are transparent and interpretable to clinicians. The gold standard in this study was an expert periodontist with over 10 years of experience in Periodontology, which should be considered when interpreting the results.
If AI technology continues to evolve, its integration into periodontal diagnostics may become increasingly commonplace. Used appropriately, these tools could help support earlier intervention, reduce diagnostic uncertainty, and contribute to more consistent patient outcomes.
For now, AI remains a tool in development—but one with the potential to transform how we approach the diagnosis and management of periodontal disease in the years ahead.
Reference:
Yavuz MC, Terzi M, Büyük SK. Artificial Intelligence-Based Periodontal Disease Detection on Radiographs: A Diagnostic Accuracy Study. Front Med Technol. 2024; DOI: 10.3389/fmedt.2024.1469852