Comparison of AI-based radiographic interpretation versus endodontic specialists for identifying periapical lesions:...

The detection of periapical lesion is a diagnostic problem that sometimes entails the use of experts who can correctly interpret the radiographs to be accurate. Therefore, it is of interest to compare an AI system that uses CNN with endodontic experts in the classification of periapical lesions on 500 digital periapical radiographs. The AI was sensitive, specific and accurate with 89.2, 91.5, and 90.2 respectively, which is close to the performance of specialists and is able to process images more than 20 times faster. There were no differences in diagnostic measures of AI and experts. Thus, we show that AI-aided radiographic analysis may be used as a safe, time-saving supplement to the endodontic practice to detect periapical lesions.