Dental Caries Diagnosis and Detection Using Neural Networks: A Systematic Review

Dental caries is the most prevalent dental disease worldwide, and neural networks and artificial intelligence are increasingly being used in the field of dentistry. This systematic review aims to identify the state of the art of neural networks in caries detection and diagnosis. A search was conducted in PubMed, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Xplore, and ScienceDirect. Data extraction was performed independently by two reviewers. The quality of the selected studies was assessed using the Cochrane Handbook tool. Thirteen studies were included. Most of the included studies employed periapical, near-infrared light transillumination, and bitewing radiography. The image databases ranged from 87 to 3000 images, with a mean of 669 images. Seven of the included studies labeled the dental caries in each image by experienced dentists. Not all of the studies detailed how caries was defined, and not all detailed the type of carious lesion detected. Each study included in this review used a different neural network and different outcome metrics. All this variability complicates the conclusions that can be made about the reliability or not of a neural network to detect and diagnose caries. A comparison between neural network and dentist results is also necessary.