VU Researchers Are Developing a New Technology to Identify the Risk of Tooth Decay

To find new and more effective ways of determining a patient’s oral health, researchers in the field of dentistry and data science at Vilnius University (VU) are developing an instrument that analyses panoramic images of a patient’s mouth and automatically provides a tooth decay risk assessment.

This technology is being developed in accordance with the VU Science Promotion Foundation’s Young Scientists project “Development of an AI-CE1 Model of Artificial Intelligence Technology-Based Instrument”, which is being implemented by Indrė Stankevičienė, a Doctoral student at the VU Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Dentistry.

Interdisciplinarity encourages dreaming big and making those dreams come true

I. Stankevičienė’s research is mainly focused on people at high risk of dental diseases. The scientist is researching the early diagnosis of those diseases and more efficient management of a patient’s current condition.

“The care of patients at high risk of tooth decay, which is my direction as a medical practitioner, helps me understand the most relevant dental problems that arise in the daily work of a dentist; therefore, after working with patients, I usually return to my research with new ideas,” I. Stankevičienė said.

The dentist is happy that patients are willing to participate in the research being conducted by her scientific team. In this way, they are not only contributing to the progress of Lithuanian science, but also receive obvious benefits for themselves: “The patients taking part in this research learn about their oral health status and possible risks for some chronic diseases, as well as participating in various pilot health programmes.”

While consulting with patients, I. Stankevičienė and her team members compiled a large database, which required interdisciplinary knowledge. According to her, interdisciplinarity is necessary for all fields of science, as you must cooperate with others to become someone who is not afraid of dreaming big and achieving your goals.

“It so happens that sometimes you think out loud about something that hasn’t been created yet, and it turns out that your colleague from another field knows a scientist who could turn your fantasies into a reality. This is exactly what happened with our project. Having come up with something that would be very useful and convenient for us as dentists, we quickly found like-minded scientists who helped us implement those ideas,” the scientist explained.

The instrument will help assess a patient’s oral health

A few years ago, while working on her dissertation and preparing to study the oral health of Lithuanian adults, I. Stankevičienė travelled around all the regions of Lithuania. During this research, the dentist advised nearly 1,500 adults on their oral health status and the care they needed, then later shared her newly-found knowledge with her colleagues. The result was a variety of research projects, such as dental education programmes that are now entering new and more efficient stages, as well as this project to develop an instrument based on artificial intelligence.

“The idea for an instrument based on artificial intelligence technologies, developed by our team, came into being when we realised the importance of monitoring the oral health of the population in a simple way, but on an ongoing basis. Prior to our research, the oral health of the national Lithuanian population was studied twenty years ago. However, the state of oral health in the country must be monitored constantly. This is what creates the preconditions for more effective prevention programmes. We hope that the AI-CE1 instrument we are developing will serve this purpose,” I. Stankevičienė said.

The purpose of the instrument being developed by VU researchers is the automatic identification of a certain index reflecting tooth decay in panoramic photos of the teeth. These photos are routinely taken at many dental offices, for identifying various oral health conditions and planning treatment.

“We hope that, in addition to the usual information that the doctor receives from analysing the image, our technology will allow them to obtain more data about the patient being treated at no extra time cost. The instrument will immediately indicate the cariesological index of the patient, while reflecting the number of missing (removed), filled and decayed teeth. A high value of the index will signal to the doctor that the patient needs a more intensive examination or care,” the researcher revealed, while discussing the benefits of the instrument being developed.

A high cariesological index is also often a warning of possible salivation disorders in patients, and the early diagnosis of these disorders can help prevent dental health complications and warn of complex chronic diseases. Thus, the technology would make it possible to more effectively monitor the patient’s oral health and support the need for prevention.

The instrument is also of interest to the international scientific community

The scientist is pleased to note that, together with her team, she is successfully moving towards the development of a model for the AI-CE1 instrument. All the clinical preparations have been completed, and the data scientists are now completing tests on the required algorithms.

“We can already see optimistic results from the newly developed model. However, the development of the model envisaged in the project is only one part of the final product, so in order for it to become a final tool that is accessible to all, we still need to take a number of steps. While there is still a long way to go before the final product is ready, the results we have obtained so far and the potential of the model are of great interest to the scientific community. We are currently working hard to share the results of our work with the global community, as we intend to present the model at three international conferences,” I. Stankevičienė explained.

According to the scientist, as a child she wanted to be a doctor, a teacher, an information technology specialist and even a writer. Her current clinical activities and ongoing research are a response to the competencies required in all those professions.

“The work of a dentist is also that of a teacher, as we are constantly educating patients about proper oral and general healthcare, and we must motivate them to choose a healthy lifestyle. We become writers when we work on our scientific articles – and the development of a dental instrument is the last part of the puzzle, which covers the field of information technology and making one’s childhood dreams come true,” the scientist said.