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AI in DentalEducation
You’ve seen that AI can bolster patient care by providing consistency, smoothing the restoration process, and improving practice management. In the future, it might also help expand access to regions with a dearth of practitioners or predict needed care based on local patient data. The catch, of course, is that dentists interested in this brave new world will need advanced education.
During the 2020-2021 academic year, more than 25,000 students were enrolled in pre-doctoral dental programs—the most ever, according to a survey by the American Dental Association (ADA). Many of these students will work with AI-enhanced tools as part of their education. Others will learn on the job as dentistry’s early adopters and AI-natives push the industry forward.
While older practitioners may be content to close out their practice the way they began it, younger dentists and dental students are already hankering for change. “That group wants AI yesterday. They’re used to it. They understand it. There’s no suspicion there,” said Dr. Cindy Roark, DMD, MS and svp and Chief Clinical officer at Sage Dental Management.
Unfortunately for the impatient, incorporating AI in education could be a long road for dental schools and DSOs invested in providing continuing education for their practitioners. Still, a number of schools are taking initial steps.
During the 2020-2021 academic year, more than 25,000 students were enrolled in pre-doctoral dental programs—the most ever, according to a survey by the American Dental Association (ADA). Many of these students will work with AI-enhanced tools as part of their education. Others will learn on the job as dentistry’s early adopters and AI-natives push the industry forward.
While older practitioners may be content to close out their practice the way they began it, younger dentists and dental students are already hankering for change. “That group wants AI yesterday. They’re used to it. They understand it. There’s no suspicion there,” said Dr. Cindy Roark, DMD, MS and svp and Chief Clinical officer at Sage Dental Management.
Unfortunately for the impatient, incorporating AI in education could be a long road for dental schools and DSOs invested in providing continuing education for their practitioners. Still, a number of schools are taking initial steps.
To get started, drill down on AI basics
“First, dentists need to really understand AI,” said Dr. Walter Renne, DMD, a professor and Assistant Dean of Innovation and Digital Dentistry and co-director for Digital Dentistry Residency at the Medical University of South Carolina. “The term is overused in the industry. It’s become a buzzword,” he explained. Technology and innovation courses that include a primer on AI, how it works and why it’s driving dentistry forward could help students understand the personal benefits of AI, he said.“As a young practitioner, you have a lot going on mentally regarding how to perform dentistry well. If you look at the statistics, dentistry is one of the most stressful careers, and AI tools can help lower that stress. It will allow us to do dentistry better and more economically.”
Ibrahim Duqum, DDS, MS, FICD, Associate Professor of Prosthodontics and Director for Clinical Curriculum at the University of North Carolina Adams School of Dentistry, agreed. “Dentists are practical and result-oriented,” he said. Demonstrating the tangible benefits AI delivers, like performance efficiency and financial benefits, could give young dentists the push they need to really dig into the technology. Better patient and treatment outcomes, savings in time and materials, and practical approaches will also draw dentists to AI.
One way AI could demonstrate immediate benefit is through intelligent tutoring, said Dr. Michelle Robinson, Senior Associate Dean in the School of Dentistry, Dean in the School of Education, and Associate Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
“Currently, a session is held, after which students are quizzed and learn whether each answer is correct or incorrect,” she said. AI can dig into the path behind the wrong answer and teaching the students from the point where they erred, she explained. “Consider a physics quiz, where the problem could be a student’s lack of a math background in a particular area. AI would start there. In dentistry, the problem could be in the medical chain.”
One way AI could demonstrate immediate benefit is through intelligent tutoring, said Dr. Michelle Robinson, Senior Associate Dean in the School of Dentistry, Dean in the School of Education, and Associate Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
“Currently, a session is held, after which students are quizzed and learn whether each answer is correct or incorrect,” she said. AI can dig into the path behind the wrong answer and teaching the students from the point where they erred, she explained. “Consider a physics quiz, where the problem could be a student’s lack of a math background in a particular area. AI would start there. In dentistry, the problem could be in the medical chain.”
Dental education’s next generation
Then there’s the wow factor. A handful of dental colleges are at the forefront of advanced instructional technologies, like electronic learning and gamification, which deliver a new generation of tech-savvy docs.
AI-driven clinical support tool
At ATSU Dental School in Arizona, students are already using an AI-driven clinical support tool to test their diagnostic and treatment planning skills. While the AI technology reads an X-ray and scans for several conditions, students take that X-ray and indicate any problems they see. They can then compare their answers against the AI program to find the most miniscule issue, such as an open margin of a crown. This spring, Dr. Mallya’s students at UCLA also experimented with an AI assessment tool, where they looked at radiographs, scored their exercises themselves, and then saw how the computer scored it. But there is much more on the horizon.
CAD / CAM
Haptic systems, simulators, and computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) software also bring a next-generation feel to dental education. For example, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, students wear gloves enabled with haptic sensors simulating touch to practice pulling teeth or performing surgery.
RFID
At Columbia, they are incorporating radio frequency identification (RFID) into instruments to understand usage times, putting cameras into dental chairs to record procedures, and using chair sensors to determine the time of patients’ seating and departure.This data can be used to improve practice management by predicting treatment times and in training to provide feedback about procedure efficiency.
As exciting as all that sounds, it may be some time before most dental schools catch up to these early adopters. Before it can, dental associations must land on standards and best practices on AI generally as well as how it should be incorporated in dental education. “In the future, we’re going to see a broader range of activity across all schools,” said Dr. Robinsom, also noting that the ADA has discussed forming a task force to address these needs as well as ways to promote AI consistently. With that in the world, AI courses and systems may appear in more dental schools within the next five years.
Dental education’s next generation
For already practicing dentists, five years might not be soon enough. “The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for effective communication tools, distant learning, collaboration platforms, and learning strategies not limited by time and physical space,” said Dr. Duqum. “AI provides a platform to make continuing dental education more accessible, targeted, and limitless, and has unique features that facilitate communication, learning, and discovery.”
Employee performance
In dental organizations with a large amount of data, providers could establish benchmarks for performance and then use employee performance data to either retrain individuals who need it or direct them to continuing education programs. Existing practitioners could use AI-powered software to assess their skills and improve using AI-powered tutoring, haptic gloves that measure motion to the millimeter, and more.
Identify Student with Skills
AI can also be used to identify and promote top talent in a few ways. AI would allow faculty to identify students adept at some skills, such as hand skills and eye coordination, which is suited to certain specialties, said Dr. Mallya. He also theorized that if he were heading a large radiology group and found through AI that there were individuals who had expertise in an area, he would be able to reach out to these individuals for a final opinion regarding challenging cases and make use of that expertise.
Admission process
Artificial intelligence can be used to evaluate potential hires, vetting them against not only the AI but against their more established peers. This capability will be particularly helpful for large networks that hire new grads. Using AI to recruit top talent is further off than using it in the admissions process; however, because the doctor-candidate relationship requires so much one-on-one, Dr. Robinson said.
The current advances in the dental industry thanks to AI have increased the overall quality of dental care immensely. In similar measure, the importance of educating dentists to use this technology cannot be overestimated.