Role of artificial intelligence in teledentistry diagnosis and treatment planning

Limited access to dental specialists delays accurate diagnosis and treatment planning in remote and underserved populations. Therefore, it is of interest to evaluate the reliability of an artificial intelligence system for remote dental diagnosis and treatment planning using intraoral images, panoramic radiographs and clinical histories from 320 patients. AI-generated outputs were compared with independent assessments by three board-certified dentists using Cohen's kappa, sensitivity and specificity metrics. The system achieved 93.2% agreement for caries detection, 89.1% for periodontal assessment and 90.5% for malocclusion classification, with caries detection sensitivity of 94.8% and specificity of 92.1%. Thus, use of artificial intelligence showed substantial diagnostic concordance and may improve triage efficiency and access to care in teledentistry settings.