JADA Pilot Study Tests Two FDA-Cleared AI Tools for Caries and Bone Loss

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Posted: June 10, 2026

JADA Pilot Study Tests Two FDA-Cleared AI Tools for Caries and Bone Loss

Edited by Dentaltown staff

A pilot external-validation study in the June issue of The Journal of the American Dental Association tested two FDA-cleared artificial intelligence decision-support systems for detecting caries and periodontal bone loss on dental radiographs, finding the tools were strongest at confirming when disease was absent.

Researchers analyzed records from 90 patients, with a mean age of about 61, treated at the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Health Care System. Each case included full-mouth radiographs and standardized clinical documentation with six to 12 months of follow-up. The team established ground truth through a multiphase protocol using calibrated examiners and adjudication, then emphasized specificity and negative predictive value to gauge how closely each system agreed with that reference.

For caries detection, one system reached about 79 percent concordance, 80 percent specificity, and 97 percent negative predictive value; the second reached roughly 82 percent, 84 percent, and 97 percent. For periodontal bone loss, defined as at least 33 percent bone loss or 5 millimeters of attachment loss, the systems posted concordance of about 78 percent and 74 percent, with specificity near 94 percent for both.

The authors concluded that the tools can reliably rule out disease and cut false-positive results, making them most useful as adjunctive screening aids rather than standalone diagnostics. Their high specificity and negative predictive value let clinicians trust a negative reading, the authors wrote, while positive findings still require clinician confirmation.

The research was led by Owais A. Farooqi and colleagues and was published in JADA.

The study noted that external validation work on dental AI remains scarce and offered its retrospective, longitudinal approach as a template for larger multisite studies.

Sources:
The Journal of the American Dental Association (via ScienceDirect), “Evaluation of Artificial Intelligence–Based Clinical Decision Support Systems for Caries and Periodontal Bone Loss: An External Validation Study,” by Owais A. Farooqi et al.: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002817725006828
National Library of Medicine, PubMed listing, PMID 41441804: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41441804


JADA Pilot Study Tests Two FDA-Cleared AI Tools for Caries and Bone Loss

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