In health care, we have to be careful about confidentiality issues when working with patient data. To have enough data to create a useful tool, we need to collect it together from many sources. How do we keep it safe? be used in endodontics to help identify second mesiobuccal (MB2) canals. “More patients are getting implants, and when they have issues with them many years later, often they don’t have the information we need about the implants,” he says. “Currently, we sometimes have to access the implants and we don’t have the proper tools or know which kind of implant we are dealing with. Dentists have to look at a database of implants and go through them one by one.” Dr. Nguyen’s research suggests that an AI system that could quickly identify implant types would save time and effort in dental practices. to create a useful tool, we need to collect it together from many sources. How do we keep it safe? However, this is more a concern for researchers rather than everyday users.” For people who use AI, accountability is also a concern. “What happens when an AI system makes a mistake?” says Dr. Nguyen. “Is that the fault of the AI? The company that made the AI? Or the user? We are going to need appropriate regulation to address these questions.” He also cites ethical issues as a potential problem for some AI technologies, though not just specific to dentistry. “A Black researcher in Boston found that the face recognition AI she was working with couldn’t recognize her because the data set it was trained on had an uneven distribution of races,” he says. AI isn’t a panacea, according to Dr. Nguyen. “If you have bad quality information going in, you’ll have bad quality results come out,” he says. At the end of the day, Dr. Nguyen doesn’t believe that people should be fearful of AI. “AI can’t replace dentists,” he says. “It’s a powerful tool that will help us be more effective and will give us more time to communicate with our patients. Ultimately, AI will be a win-win for dentists and patients.” Concerns about AI “AI is very hungry for data,” says Dr. Nguyen. “In health care, we have to be careful about confidentiality issues when working with patient data. To have enough data Watch a full conversation with Dr. Nguyen on AI and dentistry on CDA Oasis: bit.ly/3QDSjA1 Reference: 1. Nguyen TT, Larrivée N, Lee A, Bilaniuk O, Durand R. Use of Artificial Intelligence in Dentistry: Current Clinical Trends and Research Advances. J Can Dent Assoc 2021 May;87:l7. 24 | 2023 | Issue 6 Issues and People
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