Clinical application of a deep learning system for automatic mandibular alveolar bone quantity assessment and...

Assessing dimensions of available bone throughout hundreds of cone-beam computed tomography cross-sectional images of the edentulous area is time-consuming, focus-demanding, and prone to variability and mistakes. This study aims for a clinically applicable artificial intelligence-based automation system for available bone quantity assessment and providing possible surgical and nonsurgical treatment options in a real-time manner. YOLOv8-seg, a single-stage convolutional neural network detector, has been used to segment mandibular alveolar bone and the inferior alveolar canal from cross-sectional images of a custom dataset. Measurements from the segmented mask of the bone and canal have been calculated mathematically and compared with manual measurements from 2 different operators, and the time for the measurement task has been compared. Classification of bone dimension with 25 treatment options has been automatically suggested by the system and validated with a team of specialists. The YOLOv8 model achieved significantly accurate improvements in segmenting anatomical structures with a precision of 0.951, recall of 0.915, mAP50 of 0.952, Intersection over Union of 0.871, and dice similarity coefficient of 0.911. The efficiency ratio of that segmentation performed by the artificial intelligence-based system is 2001 times faster in comparison to the human subject. A statistically significant difference in the measurements from the system to operators in height and time is recorded. The system's recommendations matched the clinicians' assessments in 94% of cases (83/88). Cohen κ of 0.89 indicated near-perfect agreement. The YOLOv8 model is an effective tool, providing high accuracy in segmenting dental structures with balanced computational requirements, and even with the challenges presented, the system can be clinically applicable with future improvements, providing less time-consuming and, most importantly, specialist-level accurate implant planning reports.