Every day, we hear new stories of the changes that AI technology has brought to our lives. In the past 24 hours, Nasdaq posted an article about how AI is transforming healthcare. The Columbian Missourian talked about the changes that AI has brought to cancer treatment and muscle research.
Many facets of the healthcare system are changing as a result of AI technology. Dental care is among them.
Is AI Changing the Way that You Receive Dental Care?
During a consultation, your dentist will take an X-ray of your mouth to check for decay or infection. Before installing crowns, your dentist may perform a root canal treatment to treat infections in your root pulp.
Of course, dentists aren’t omniscient. They can make their best guesses when making diagnoses or determining a treatment plan, but they generally need technology to assist them. This is where AI technology can be very helpful.
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In June, Zach Winn of the MIT News Office talked about some of the changes that AI has brought to the dental industry in his post Taking the guesswork out of dental care with artificial intelligence. Winn mentioned that an alumni of MIT created a new AI tool called Overjet that uses complex machine learning algorithms to help dentists offer more comprehensive care to their patients.
Wardah Inam, the cofonder of Overjet, states that this AI technology has drastically improved dentists’ abilities to offer higher quality care. A more specific way that AI can help patients is with creating good dental crowns. One AI dental care product called 3Dme Crown offers one click veneer and crown designs.
When dentists use AI to do most of the heavy lifting, they can save patients’ money and come up with higher quality dental crowns and veneers. They don’t have to do much at this point other than create the mold, put in the cement and start putting them in. When the permanent veneers are ready, you can visit your dentist for placement. During placement, your dentist will check the fit and color of the veneer, ensuring it suits you. If everything checks out, your dentist will use dental cement to bond the veneers to your teeth. The cement is hardened using a special curing light. The process would be much more intensive without AI assisting them!
What Are the Limits of AI with Dental Care?
Of course, there are some elements that AI can’t help with, which means that the dentist still needs to be involved. After treatment, your dentist will need to file down the tooth that needs the crown. The type of crown you are receiving will determine the number of teeth your dentist will file away. After reshaping your tooth, your dentist will take an impression and send it to a dental laboratory. Like veneers, you will get temporary crowns until your customized crowns are ready. Then, during the second visit, your dentist will remove the temporary crowns and install the permanent ones.
AI still can’t help with choosing the perfect color either, since machines don’t have the same appreciation for aesthetics. After checking the fit and color, your dentist will bond your crowns in place using dental cement. You should get an anaesthetic to numb your tooth to the pain during the procedure. The cost of dental crowns and veneers differs and you can click here for more details. Besides the procedure, location influences cost. For example, the cost of porcelain veneers in the USA is $2000 to $2500 per tooth; in the UK, porcelain veneers cost $1300 to $1700. In Turkey, one unit of porcelain veneers is $270 to $370. It would be nice if AI could handle all these steps, but maybe one day AI-driven robots can handle many of them as well!
Dental crowns, on the other hand, are much cheaper than veneers. In the USA, dental crowns cost $900 to $1500 per tooth; in the UK, they cost $700 to $800. In Turkey, one dental crown costs $130 to $190.
AI is Changing Dentistry for the Better
We have talked about the benefits of AI in healthcare. Now, you have a better idea of how AI changes dental care, specifically.
There have been major improvements in dental care due to advances in AI in recent years. Dentistry Today has highlighted some of these benefits. If you want a new crown or other major dental work, it is a good idea to find a dentist that understands how to use AI to their advantage.