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Students by Beth Bradley, DentalTownUK student editor

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DentaltownUK - Students

Beth Bradley

DentalTownUK student editor Beth Bradley

Summer is finally here!

For many students, this means summer holidays, bringing the prospect of exciting travel plans for holidays or electives. For others, summer means a chance to stay home, relax and pursue hobbies and passions that can often get left behind in the hectic schedule of studying dentistry. Maybe summer is your chance to work, to gain experience or to save up for the school year ahead.

Whatever your plans, I hope you enjoy the longer days of sunshine—when we get it!—and get a chance to unwind after a busy year of dental studies.

For any final-year readers, like me, this summer brings about big changes! This is the last summer before entering the very ‘real’ working world of dentistry. I hope you use your time to prepare for the exciting and challenging year ahead.

In this student section of DentaltownUK, we hear from Roma McNeil, a final-year dental student who has combined creativity,initiative and entrepreneurship to create an online business. McNeil tells us how she uses her textile skills and tech-savvy promotion via social media in her new venture.

Speaking of online platforms and technology, John Gorman introduces us to the fascinating world of artificial intelligence and how this ever-growing and developing concept could influence dentistry in the future.

Both Roma and John are stepping away from the world of dentistry and thinking outside the box. They are engaging in alternative interests and passions alongside their pursuit of a career in dentistry, and I think we could all learn from this.

In the all-encompassing dental bubble we live it, I encourage you to remember the sports, pastimes and hobbies you used to love and to reignite these passions during your spare time this summer.

I hope you enjoy this issue,

Beth Bradley

From Smiles to Scrunchies: How Launching a Small Business Helped to Beat Final-Year Blues

by Roma McNeil
(@maisieandmachine)

Roma McNeil

Earlier this year, I sat for my final written exams at dental school—a moment that many would, rightly, celebrate and relish. However, as soon as the paper was collected, I, quite frankly, felt a little bit rubbish!

Months of long hours in the library, reading countless research articles and textbooks, eating, breathing and sleeping teeth left me feeling deflated. Although my degree is not yet complete, with impending case presentations, I had overcome one of the largest hurdles and suddenly found myself with very little to do.

Now, there is only so much Netflix and iPlayer that one can binge-watch before it becomes slightly ridiculous; however, in my postexam hole of chocolate, Deliveroo and online shopping, I rekindled my love of Project Runway (if you haven’t seen it, you need to, even if it is only for Tim Gunn’s excellent one-liners) and the next day dusted off my sewing machine.

Having not sewn for years (with the exception of a few lip lacerations, surgical flaps and other odd occasions where I was allowed to brandish a suture as a shaky-handed student), I decided the best way to get back into the swing of things was to start with an easy project that would use up scrap fabric: the humble hair scrunchie.

After a few hours of getting to grips with my machine, I had a surplus of scrunchies that would even have been considered excessive in the 1990s.

Cue a small amount of hasty research, and I realised there was a growing online market for hair accessories, and scrunchies were flying off Etsy’s (virtual) shelves like hotcakes. I quickly set up an online shop along with the necessary millennial marketing tools—Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, you name it!—and suddenly found myself inundated with orders.

Now you know the back story—on to the reason why I’m rambling on about this. Since starting my online shop, I haven’t once sat wondering what I could occupy my time with, and I certainly have not felt deflated. After all, I had a new purpose: supplying hair accessories to Etsy’s keen customers and learning from other small businesses the tricks of the trade. In just under a month, I felt more balanced and occupied, and had a few extra pennies in my pocket.

As university life resumed, I felt able to balance this with my shop, and actually felt more productive!

Although I have not yet graduated, and the stresses of the real world haven’t even begun, I do know how it feels to be all-consumed with examinations, clinics and university life. My message to dental students who might feel how I did: Take up a new hobby, sport or craft! I hope my story has inspired you to find a life away from teeth.

Oh, and if you want a scrunchie, I’ve got you covered!

Will Dentists Be Replaced by Artificial Intelligence?

by John Gorman

John Gorman In 2014, Stephen Hawking warned that artificial intelligence (AI) could end mankind.1 Hawking is not alone, with many academics and world leaders echoing these statements. Elon Musk agrees, stating in 2018 that AI ‘is the single biggest existential crisis that we face’.2 If this is true, how will AI affect the dental profession?

There are many apocalyptic theories that AI will replace humankind, but one of the most immediate and tangible issues it poses is to our workforce. An increasing number of jobs are lost every year as companies implement artificial intelligence to replace low-skilled workers.

AI makes fewer mistakes, doesn’t get tired, doesn’t quit and you don’t have to pay it for holidays or sick leave—it seems inevitable that in a capitalist society, businesses will adopt such innovations.

This is not a prediction of the future; an estimated 4 million jobs in America have already been replaced by AI in the past few years.3 Job automation has a great effect on society, because many of the states with the highest job losses due to automation had the greatest votes for Donald Trump, some would argue as a protest for no longer being valued in the marketplace. The situation is only set to worsen, with an estimated 400–800 million jobs to be automated worldwide by 2030.4

As a dental profession, we should assess the risks and benefits of AI and be aware of the possible changes that could occur as a result. There are many benefits that AI is bringing to dentistry, such as programs like Dentistry.

AI being developed to more quickly and reliably detect caries on radiographs.5,6 If this proves successful, it will undoubtedly benefit dentists; however, would we then be complicit in the job losses of many radiographers across the world?

Societies and markets change, and many people will be displaced as a result, but some are at a higher risk than others. A study by Oxford University called ‘The Future of Employment’ calculated the probability that different occupations would be automated and redefined by artificial intelligence.7 It found that telemarketers had a 99% chance of their jobs being automated, while dentists had a 0.4% chance of suffering the same fate, with oral and maxillofacial surgeons having a 0.3% chance.

So, what is it about dentistry that makes it so much more difficult to automate than a telemarketer? One fundamental reason is that patients don’t want to be treated by a machine that has no empathy.8

Without empathy, patients cannot confidently trust that their problems have been understood and related to and an appropriate solution has been decided.

A reason dentistry is so difficult to automate is that lateral thinking is required: All dentists have had patients where they had to think outside of the box to formulate a treatment plan. AI would find this extremely difficult. This does not mean, however, that there is not an effort to overcome these difficulties. Due to vast overpopulation in China, there is currently a lack of dentists, which has prompted scientists to create a robot capable of placing implants. The first successful implants were carried out in 2017 with the assistance of CBCT to an error margin of 0.2-0.3mm.9 This is unlikely to become commonplace in the near future, but it illustrates that where opportunity for increased efficiency lies, someone will attempt to exploit it.

There will be many decisions in the future regarding artificial intelligence and its effect on our society—from loss of jobs and of purpose to ethical and moral dilemmas surrounding the scope of AI’s behaviour.

When these decisions are being made, dentistry may not be at high risk, but should not be left out of the conversation. The dental profession must defend itself against those who wish to replace our lateral thinking and human empathy with linear thinking and robotic efficiency.

References

  1. 5 Reasons Why Artificial Intelligence Won’t Replace Physicians. (2018, July 06). Retrieved from https://medicalfuturist.com/5-reasons-artificial-intelligence-wont-replace-physicians
  2. Cellan-Jones, R. (2014, December 02). Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30290540
  3. Clifford, C. (2018, March 14). Elon Musk: ‘Mark my words - A.I. is far more dangerous than nukes’. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/13/elon-musk-at-sxsw-a-i-is-more-dangerous-than-nuclear-weapons.html
  4. Dentistry.AI. (n.d.). Dentistry.ai. Retrieved from https://dentistry.ai/
  5. Fisher, A. L. (2019, March 12). An entrepreneur who’s running for president explains how he’d give every American $1,000 a month and solve the ‘fake news’ problem. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/andrew-yang-2020-democratic-candidate-universal-basic-income-fake-news-2019-3?r=US&IR=T
  6. Frey, C. B., & Osborne, M. A. (2017). The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation? Technological Forecasting and Social Change,114, 254-280. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2016.08.019
  7. Gupta, S. (2018, June 26). The Future of Artificial Intelligence in Dentistry - DZone AI. Retrieved from https://dzone.com/articles/the-future-of-artificial-intelligence-in-dentistry
  8. Lui, K. (2017, September 22). China: Robot Conducts First Fully Automated Dental Implant. Retrieved from http://time.com/4952886/china-world-first-dental-surgery-robot-implant/
  9. The Impact of Artificial Intelligence - Widespread Job Losses. (2018, October 02). Retrieved from https://www.iotforall.com/impact-of-artificial-intelligence-job-losses/
 
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