Dentistry: The next frontier for artificial intelligence

Soon, many patients’ first experience with AI in medicine may be in the dental chair

Ophir Tanz

CEO at Pearl

minute read •

May 19, 2022

Clinical

Technology

Key Takeaways

Dentistry is well positioned to take advantage of AI.
AI has clinical and business applications relevant to dentistry.
AI is a tool for dentists to use in improving patient care, not a dentist itself.

Healthcare is in the midst of a digital revolution. Patients have become familiar with electronic recordkeeping and with digital CT and MRI scans; some have come face-to-face with the use of computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI) to diagnose pulmonary and other cancers.

But AI is poised to make a new, more immediate impression on our lives. It's in everyday dentistry that most people will probably have their first experience with the surprising ability of computers to see and interpret routine X-rays with accuracy equal to — and often better than — human readers.

The importance of artificial intelligence in dentistry

Dentistry is well-positioned to make use of AI's abilities. Everyone who goes to a dentist has X-rays taken from time to time, so there are likely far more dental X-rays in existence than any other kind. These radiographic images, annotated by human experts, are being used to teach AI systems what healthy and unhealthy teeth look like and how to recognize the differences. [‍...]

Read the full article in Forbes >

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About the author

Ophir Tanz is an award-winning entrepreneur and technologist. He is the founder and CEO of Pearl, an AI company focused on solving fundamental problems in the dental industry. Previously, Ophir founded and led GumGum to several hundred million dollars in global revenue by applying computer vision machine learning to drive and measure value for the digital media and sports sponsorship industries. Ophir earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree at Carnegie Mellon University. An established member of the Los Angeles startup community, Ophir actively advises and invests in startups and, in 2017, was named one of Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs.