Empowering surgeons: will artificial intelligence change oral and maxillofacial surgery?

Area of Science:

• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
• Medical Informatics
• Computational Pathology

Background:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers advanced computational technologies to enhance diagnostics and treatments in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMS).
• The integration of AI in OMS holds significant potential for improving clinical practice and patient outcomes.
• A growing body of research indicates a surge in AI applications within the OMS field.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a scoping review of the current literature on AI applications in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.
• To identify the primary areas and methods of AI utilization in OMS.
• To highlight the need for further research to optimize AI integration in clinical settings.

Main Methods:

• A scoping review methodology was employed, analyzing 90 articles from OMS-related journals.
• PubMed was searched using keywords including "artificial intelligence", "convolutional networks", "neural networks", "machine learning", "deep learning", and "automation".
• Articles were classified into subcategories such as pathology, orthognathic surgery, and facial trauma.

Main Results:

• A significant increase in AI-related publications in OMS was observed after 2019 (95.6% of reviewed studies).
• Primary AI applications identified were in pathology (lesion detection, metastasis detection) and orthognathic surgery (surgical planning, bone segmentation).
• Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) were the predominant AI models used for classification tasks.

Conclusions:

• AI demonstrates considerable potential to enhance precision and efficiency in OMS diagnostics and treatments.
• The primary applications of AI in OMS are currently focused on pathology and orthognathic surgery.
• Further research is crucial to fully optimize AI integration and maximize its benefits for patient care in OMS.