Artificial Intelligence Versus Human Intelligence in Presurgical Implant Planning: A Preclinical Validation

Area of Science:

• Dental Implantology
• Artificial Intelligence in Dentistry
• Surgical Planning

Background:

• Virtual implant placement is crucial for predictable dental restorations.
• Traditional methods rely on human intelligence (HI), which can be time-consuming and variable.
• Evaluating AI-driven tools is essential to improve efficiency and accuracy in implant dentistry.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate an AI tool for automated virtual implant placement.
• To compare AI with HI-based approaches for single posterior tooth replacement.
• To assess accuracy, implant dimension selection, time efficiency, and consistency.

Main Methods:

• A dataset of 50 CBCT and intraoral scans was used for AI and HI comparison.
• Quantitative analysis of implant location and dimensions was performed.
• Qualitative evaluation by specialists included a visual analog scale and Turing test.

Main Results:

• AI-planned implants showed 89% clinical acceptability, comparable to HI's 93%.
• AI planning was over twice as fast (187s vs. 406s) and demonstrated superior consistency (MSD of 0 vs. 0.33-0.56mm).
• Implant dimensions selected by AI closely matched expert choices.

Conclusions:

• AI is a reliable tool for virtual implant placement in mandibular molars.
• AI-driven virtual implant placement produces clinically acceptable plans.
• AI offers significant advantages in speed and consistency over human experts.