AI is coming for your teeth! Should you be scared? In all seriousness, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most exciting things to ever happen to orthodontics and dental care. However, we want to assure you that AI robots will not be replacing your trusted orthodontist anytime soon. Like the oscillating dental chair you sit in when you visit your orthodontist or the imaging machine your dental tech uses to build your custom retainer, AI should be thought of as another tool that can enhance your care experience. Here are four truths we really want you to know about AI in orthodontics:
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AI can’t replace your orthodontist.
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AI also can’t replace the friendly ortho assistants who greet you at every visit and assist with every aspect of your care.
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While AI can make your care experience much better, any orthodontist relying on AI beyond its scope is actually doing you a disservice.
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AI works best when it’s used to gather data that your human orthodontist can use to customize your braces or dental appliances. While there may be a time when AI in orthodontics can do more, any orthodontist that emphasizes technology over human intelligence and expertise is one to run from!
If you’re like most people, you have some AI anxiety. You may be wondering how AI-powered orthodontic treatment might impact your experience or make visiting an orthodontist feel impersonal. Here’s a glimpse into what’s already possible at your local dental office.
AI in Orthodontic Treatment Planning
Research shows that orthodontists are almost three times more likely to use AI on a daily or weekly basis than their colleagues in other professions. There’s a good reason for that. Back in my day, we used plaster molds that took a lot of guesswork. Using AI tools, we can now map teeth instantly to create ultra-personalized, ultra-precise treatment plans. When AI creates 3D dental images based on simulations of treatment outcomes, orthodontists can plug in different variables to get real-time visuals for how your teeth will move into alignment. The result? Faster, more targeted orthodontic treatments that can create better smiles.
AI can also have better “eyes” than a human orthodontist. While orthodontists will still do the same imaging we’ve always done when planning orthodontic treatments, AI-driven reviews of X-ray images can potentially help to reduce errors. By streamlining imaging reviews and planning, AI in orthodontic diagnosis can also give an orthodontist more time to spend with each patient to explain treatment plans and talk about how their alignment is progressing.
At Johnson Family Orthodontics, we personally see a future where a lot more people will be walking around with brighter, straighter smiles with help from AI. As time goes on, Artificial Intelligence in orthodontics may even help to make orthodontic care more affordable and accessible for more people.
Using AI in Dental Braces: How Technology Is Giving Orthodontists Better Insights
At this point, AI’s primary use in orthodontics has to do with mapping and generating 3D imaging. Keep in mind that we are using AI to plan your orthodontic treatments instead of actually letting AI perform any kind of dental work. Developments in AI for clear aligners and AI for braces are especially promising. According to a 2023 study that looked at the uses for AI in Invisalign, AI can aid in predicting dental, skeletal, and facial changes. AI for clear aligners has also been shown to predict patient experience to help guide treatment.
From the perspective of your orthodontist, that’s like getting a big, shiny crystal ball that’s guided by math instead of magic to predict tooth movement. The truth is that even the most experienced orthodontist can’t always map out how quickly or dramatically a tooth will respond to treatment simply because every human mouth is different.
While we get things pretty close, there could be circumstances that simply make a tooth an outlier in the way it responds to treatment. It’s one of the reasons why we typically want to see you every three to six weeks during treatment to monitor how things are going instead of assuming your teeth will do what they’re supposed to be doing. While AI isn’t replacing those visits, it does have the potential to give us better predictive technology based on mouth mapping to eliminate surprises that lengthen treatment times.
Final Thoughts on AI in Orthodontics
Any tool your orthodontist has that allows them to create more precise mapping and predict tooth movement more accurately during treatment is going to result in better, faster results. The use of AI in dental aligners and trays can also mean a much more comfortable fit for the patient. With that said, the truth is that the actual experience of having braces or Invisalign isn’t going to change that much from the patient’s perspective. We’re not reinventing the wheel here.
The pre-AI methods for aligning and moving teeth that we’ve been using for decades already do what they’re supposed to when performed under the care of a qualified, experienced dentist. AI-powered orthodontic treatment is about what happens in the background as we plan your orthodontic treatment.
If you’re thinking about getting braces or Invisalign, Dr. Cole Johnson is here to help you start your journey to a brighter smile. Schedule your free consultation today.