Technological development aimed at automating the production of dental prosthetics is advancing rapidly around the world. This is an effort to increase efficiency by allowing dentists to focus on the medical aspects of patient care, while automating tasks such as prosthetic fabrication and scanning that support their work.
The University of Basel in Switzerland recently unveiled a dental robot called the “Miniature Intraoral Robot (MIR).” It is designed to fit inside a patient’s mouth. The robot was developed to reduce the time required to fabricate crowns used for restorations following cavity treatment.
These days, treating a cavity at a dental clinic usually requires two or three visits. Not only do you need to have a temporary crown placed, but at clinics that don’t use digital scanning, you also have to bite down on impression material while the dentist takes an impression for the crown. About a week after the cavity treatment is completed, the fabricated crown is fitted, which requires precise treatment and customization by the dentist. Of course, at advanced clinics like Minish Dental Clinic that use 3D-based digital impression scanning, the dentist simply scans the inside of the mouth with a scanner, and the crown is then prepared using 3D technology.
However, the University of Basel aims to use robots to scan a patient’s mouth during the initial consultation and expedite the process so that a new crown can be ordered immediately. At the current stage, the accuracy is within 0.2 mm, and the research team expects that attaching sensors will further reduce this margin of error.
CNET, a U.S. technology magazine, reported, “So far, [the University of Basel’s research] has been tested using fake ceramic teeth in the mouth of a mannequin-like dummy, and it is not yet ready for use on humans.” Researchers at the University of Basel are exploring ways to add cameras and sensors so that the robot can determine its own position and monitor the treatment process. Professor George Rauter, who is leading the research, said, “We plan to add sensors and cameras so that the robot can track its position even during a power outage.”
Efforts to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) technology into dental care are also gaining momentum. Penn Dental Family Practices, a hospital affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, noted in a blog post last year that “While AI cannot replace dentists, it will transform dentistry,” noting that “AI is already being used to enable precise diagnoses, advance treatment planning, and improve patient outcomes.”
The hospital viewed more precise diagnostics as a key benefit of dentistry in the AI era. When treating a patient’s teeth, dentists comprehensively review X-rays, oral health records, and treatment histories. Not only can this information be compiled and analyzed in advance, but the use of 3D data also makes it easier to detect subtle patterns in images or oral lesions at an earlier stage. Furthermore, AI can be used to detect cavities at an earlier stage. Mel Mufarapu, Chair of the Department of Radiology and Professor of Oral Medicine at the university, is developing medical techniques that use AI to diagnose infections at the tips of tooth roots. He has also co-authored a paper using AI to calculate bone density and predict the performance of dental implants.
In addition, AI helps reduce the time dentists spend documenting patient records. Using natural language processing technology, AI can analyze a patient’s medical history, lifestyle habits, genetic characteristics, and previous treatment outcomes to propose individualized treatment plans for the dentist to review. Furthermore, AI algorithms can assess the complexity of each dental procedure and suggest the optimal treatment method. Of course, the final decision and actual treatment are made by the dentist, but the machine can assist in evaluating which treatment method to use.
However, “AI can never replace dentists; it cannot conduct physical examinations or make diagnoses.” These were the words of Dr. Natalia Chalmers, Chief Dental Officer at Overjet, a developer of AI dental software platforms, during a lecture at Columbia University’s College of Dental Medicine last May. Dr. Chalmers emphasized that while AI can suggest treatment options or highlight key points in diagnostic data, treatment must always be tailored to each individual patient by a dentist.
It is also noteworthy that Dr. Chalmers stated, “(AI technology) can never replace the need for high-quality X-rays.” He explained that there are limits to what AI can do when it comes to simply processing and analyzing data, and that the treatment process can only be finalized once a healthcare professional personally reviews the original images. In this regard, AI and robots are not meant to replace clinical judgment but rather serve as auxiliary tools to assist human intervention.
Furthermore, since the data used to train AI consists of actual clinical data, ethical review and regulation are also important issues. According to Dr. Chalmers, dental AI systems are developed based on carefully selected clinical data rather than publicly available internet sources, and they are trained by annotating X-ray images with features such as bone, restorations, and cavities. Converting such human medical data into AI models raises significant medical ethical concerns, making review and deliberation by health authorities and other relevant bodies essential.
On its website, the American Dental Association identified 3D printing technology and Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM), in addition to AI, as new technologies that will revolutionize dental care. DICOM can be used for assessing cavities, oral diseases, and pre-surgical and orthodontic evaluations.
Writer. Hyuntaek Lee
<A former newspaper journalist who worked for 18 years at JoongAng Ilbo>, <and Chosun Ilbo>. She is currently working as a freelance contributor and planning the second act of her life. In addition to journalism, she has worked in public relations and marketing at JTBC Broadcasting and Edelman Global Advisory in the United States.
