# Performance evaluation of AI-based caries detection technology and its educational training module: a dual-phase investigation

## TL;DR

This study evaluates an AI system for detecting dental caries and finds that it improves dental students' ability to diagnose caries from radiographs.

## Contribution

The study introduces a dual-phase evaluation of an AI-based caries detection system and its training module for dental education.

## Key findings

- The AI system showed high specificity (0.99) for enamel lesions and (0.98) for dentinal lesions.
- Dental students showed a 43%–46% improvement in caries detection after using the AI training module.
- The AI module is effective for both caries diagnosis and educational training in dental students.

## Abstract

This objective of the study was to assess the accuracy of an AI-based caries detection system, Overjet Caries Assist, or OCA, (Overjet Inc. Claymont, DE, USA) and to analyze the efficacy of the AI-based caries detection training module in teaching dental students radiographic diagnosis of dental caries.

Two independent calibrated observers evaluated 1604 proximal surfaces of teeth on intraoral bitewing radiographs and compared the findings to the OCA caries detection module. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values and diagnostic accuracy of the AI system were calculated. For the second part of the study, 82 first- and third-year dental students interpreted 10 intraoral bitewings for caries diagnosis before and after undergoing training with the OCA AI-caries detection training module. Non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to assess the difference between the students’ learning before and after the Overjet module training.

The average sensitivity for enamel lesions was found to be 0.69, while the average sensitivity for dentinal lesions was found to be 0.91. The average specificity for enamel lesions was found to be 0.99, while the average specificity for dentinal lesions was found to be 0.98. There was a 43%–46% increase in students’ ability to detect radiographic caries following the completion of the Overjet training module.

The OCA module can be used as an effective tool for assisting diagnosis of caries among dental students. The Overjet training module is effective in training dental students’ radiographic diagnosis of caries.