Dentistry has been around in some form for time immemorial. Way back when, it involved little more than removing rotting teeth and providing primitive treatment to infected gums. Over thousands of years, we reached a point at which we could actually fix things. But its evolution has been especially rapid in the last few decades.
Now it seems like dentistry is about to change forever due to the latest technology: artificial intelligence (AI). The good news is that AI is here to stay and it is not going to make dentists redundant. Here is how AI is already changing dentistry.
Insurance
The most fundamental changes are not the most glamorous. Rather, they come in the processing of things like insurance. While there is already the option to get quotes in seconds with AI-driven tech when looking for life insurance, the impact on insurance for dentistry may eventually be even more significant. This has to do with the status of insurance in the dental field.
Dentistry is left out of most health insurance plans because of the complexities in assessing risk as well as the urgency of care. AI and machine learning are being used to improve risk assessment in the insurance industry. As companies become more precise in the way they price premiums and allocate funding, they can start finding ways to include dentistry in basic plans.
Your health insurance provider may still be a way off from providing dental coverage across the board, but that should change in the coming years.
Dental Procedures
But let’s move on to the actual dentistry itself. As much as we have expertise in the field of dentistry, our brains are limited in terms of the amount of information we can compute. We can assess scans as fully as possible and we will still miss millions of data points. In most cases, we only need what we can identify to make the best decisions.
However, AI will allow us to be far more precise by instantly assessing all the data points in a scan. It will compare what it learns with the huge wealth of knowledge in the dental field, finding the best solutions for patients and saving us time in the process. It will calculate the risks as well as make contingency plans for them.
This will also save time in the operating room, giving patients a huge amount of relief.
Cosmetic Procedures
As we’ve discussed before, it can be difficult for patients to commit to a cosmetic procedure without seeing the end result. Creating veneers for patients to sample is a huge step in the right direction. AI will take that even further.
AI is able to factor in far more variables. Instead of relying on what we can calculate and envision ourselves, it can create composites of what good cosmetic dentistry will look like for a particular patient. It will then be able to provide visual mockups of how the patient will look after the procedure. It will be able to use 3D printing to create veneers that are extremely accurate.
This will allow us to provide an array of options to our patients, saving time and money in the process. When it comes time to perform the procedure, we will be more prepared than ever before.
Diagnosis
Finally, an important component that AI will be able to provide is early diagnosis of diseases that would otherwise fly under the radar. The reality is that dentists currently need to rely on patients coming in with symptoms. At this point, there may already be serious damage.
With AI, dentists will be able to run diagnostic tests on patients when they come in for their regular checkups. This will be cost-effective and quick. Early detection of signs of conditions like oral cancer can save lives.
AI is already changing dentistry and will do so for the better. The good news is that it is unlikely to come at the cost of our jobs.