Using AI to aid diagnosis and treatment acceptance
Featured Products Promotional FeaturesPosted by: Dental Design 12th March 2023
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a consistently growing technology which continues to influence daily life. It offers numerous advantages to many people every day, simplifying and automating tasks, and helping to save time. AI also brings benefits to many aspects of dentistry – whether that’s automating administrative tasks, streamlining practice management, or assisting in clinical settings. By incorporating AI into practice on a higher level, dental professionals can streamline their workflows, save time, and improve patient-dentist relations.
Visual aids in dentistry
Research suggests that the use of additional communication tools, including visual, as an adjunct to verbal explanations enhances patient satisfaction with their treatment outcome, improves quality of care and establishes a good patient-dentist relationship.[i]
Visual aids can be useful across a range of dental scenarios. This may include using diagrams or videos to improve patients’ understanding of periodontitis and the importance of good oral hygiene.[ii] Or, showing patients their radiographic scans with clear markers determining issues which led you to diagnosis – allowing patients to get a better understanding of their own oral health.
It is important that patients have a good understanding of their diagnosis and upcoming treatment, not only so they can provide proper consent, but also because this helps to build trust, ensuring they have the confidence to return to you for further treatment in the future. Research suggests that visual aids are extremely useful in preventative care, with patients who are shown visual aids gaining improved understanding of gum disease and their role in taking care of their gums and teeth. One survey suggested that 100% of patients preferred their diagnosis to be explained to them with the use of visual aids.ii
AI to assist diagnosis
The increased introduction of AI into dental practices is proving to be a very useful tool in many aspects, including diagnostics. For successful dental treatment, accurate diagnosis, appropriate treatment planning, and a prediction of prognosis are key. By introducing AI into your practice, you are able to streamline this process and simplify your workflows, with the security that there is a second set of eyes looking over your work, helping to make sure that nothing is missed.[iii]
For example, when using AI to analyse radiographic images, it may be able to detect any existing restorations, potential issues, and aid in diagnosis. This will help to save time in appointments and provide a tool when discussing potential treatment options. AI can be implemented across a range of cases, helping you to provide consistently high standards of care to all of your patients.iii
AI to improve treatment acceptance
AI brings significant value to a practice in a number of ways. Using innovative technology can enhance accuracy of diagnosis, clinical decision making, and provide a tool for communication with patients. Although this technology should not be considered to be more effective than clinicians when it comes to diagnosis and treatment, it can streamline these steps,iii helping to pick up on common conditions, looking over scans to minimise the risk of something being missed and offering clarity when used in dental imaging. By improving workflows in practice, you are able to spend more appointment time focussed on your patient, helping them to understand their diagnosis and their upcoming treatment. By creating these fantastic relationships in practice, you instil trust in your patients that your services are high quality.
To achieve this, boost treatment acceptance, and achieve accurate diagnosis, choose the AI Insights solution from Carestream Dental. The solution is compatible with Carestream Dental’s digital panoramic x-ray systems, enabling you to generate an accurate diagnosis in only a few simple clicks. Easily perform a panoramic exam and let AI Insights do the rest – detecting and displaying information about a broad range of conditions in seconds. AI Insights produces clear visual information on patients’ scans, making key issues immediately obvious to you, and easier to communicate to your patients.
By implementing AI into day-to-day imaging, clinicians will be more able to streamline the diagnostic process and boost treatment acceptance. Patients gain far better understanding of their own oral health when presented with a visual aid, better still if you can provide them with a personalised option – allowing you to accurately describe the diagnosis and recommended course of treatment.
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Nimisha Nariapara
Nimisha is the Trade Marketing Manager at Carestream Dental covering the UK, Middle East, Nordics, South Africa, Russia and CIS regions. She has worked at Carestream Dental for the past 7 years, where she has developed her marketing skills and industry knowledge to bring the core values and philosophy of the company to the market.
[i] Touati, Romane, et al. “Communication tools and patient satisfaction: A scoping review.” Journal of Esthetic and Restorative Dentistry 34.1 (2022): 104-116.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/jerd.12854
[ii] Momin, P., Mahmood, S. A quality improvement project to assess the use of visual aids to improve understanding and motivation in periodontal patients. BDJ Open 6, 15 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41405-020-0041-9
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41405-020-0041-9
[iii] Khanagar, Sanjeev B., et al. “Developments, application, and performance of artificial intelligence in dentistry–A systematic review.” Journal of dental sciences 16.1 (2021): 508-522. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1991790220301434
