Diagnostics 2023, 13, 2512. https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics13152512 www.mdpi.com/journal/diagnostics
Systematic Review
Deep Learning in Diagnosis of Dental Anomalies and
Diseases: A Systematic Review
Esra Sivari
1
, Guler Burcu Senirkentli
2
, Erkan Bostanci
3
, Mehmet Serdar Guzel
3
, Koray Acici
4
and Tunc Asuroglu
5,
*
1
Department of Computer Engineering, Cankiri Karatekin University, Cankiri 18100, Turkey
2
Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Baskent University, Ankara 06810, Turkey
3
Department of Computer Engineering, Ankara University, Ankara 06830, Turkey
4
Department of Artificial Intelligence and Data Engineering, Ankara University, Ankara 06830, Turkey
5
Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, 33720 Tampere, Finland
* Correspondence: tunc.asuroglu@tuni.fi
Abstract: Deep learning and diagnostic applications in oral and dental health have received
significant a5ention recently. In this review, studies applying deep learning to diagnose anomalies
and diseases in dental image material were systematically compiled, and their datasets,
methodologies, test processes, explainable artificial intelligence methods, and findings were
analyzed. Tests and results in studies involving human-artificial intelligence comparisons are
discussed in detail to draw a5ention to the clinical importance of deep learning. In addition, the
review critically evaluates the literature to guide and further develop future studies in this field. An
extensive literature search was conducted for the 2019–May 2023 range using the Medline (PubMed)
and Google Scholar databases to identify eligible articles, and 101 studies were shortlisted, including
applications for diagnosing dental anomalies (n = 22) and diseases (n = 79) using deep learning for
classification, object detection, and segmentation tasks. According to the results, the most commonly
used task type was classification (n = 51), the most commonly used dental image material was
panoramic radiographs (n = 55), and the most frequently used performance metric was
sensitivity/recall/true positive rate (n = 87) and accuracy (n = 69). Dataset sizes ranged from 60 to
12,179 images. Although deep learning algorithms are used as individual or at least individualized
architectures, standardized architectures such as pre-trained CNNs, Faster R-CNN, YOLO, and U-
Net have been used in most studies. Few studies have used the explainable AI method (n = 22) and
applied tests comparing human and artificial intelligence (n = 21). Deep learning is promising for
be5er diagnosis and treatment planning in dentistry based on the high-performance results
reported by the studies. For all that, their safety should be demonstrated using a more reproducible
and comparable methodology, including tests with information about their clinical applicability, by
defining a standard set of tests and performance metrics.
Keywords: deep learning; dental anomalies and diseases; dental diagnostics; dental images;
convolutional neural network
1. Introduction
Today, although most oral and dental diseases have early diagnosis and treatment
opportunities with technological developments in oral and dental health, their global
increase cannot be prevented. According to the WHO Global Oral Health Status Report
(2022) [1], oral and dental diseases affect approximately 3.5 billion people worldwide.
Especially in low- and middle-income countries, there are not adequate services in the
field of oral and dental health due to the costs of diagnosis and treatment. As a result of
this situation, it is estimated by the WHO that three out of four people in low- and middle-
income countries are affected by oral and dental diseases [1]. The most common dental
Citation: Sivari, E.; Senirkentli, G.B.;
Bostanci, E.; Guzel, M.S.; Acici, K.;
Asuroglu, T. Deep Learning in
Diagnostic of Dental Anomalies and
Diseases: A Systematic Review.
Diagnostics 2023, 13, 2512.
https://doi.org/10.3390/
diagnostics13152512
Academic Editor: Hakan
Turkkahraman
Received: 11 July 2023
Revised: 21 July 2023
Accepted: 25 July 2023
Published: 27 July 2023
Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, SwiMerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
A5ribution (CC BY) license
(h5ps://creativecommons.org/license
s/by/4.0/).