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AI-assisted software development in digital dentistry: A technical innovation report with three open-source
Marcel Reymus1, Antonin Tichy2, Christian Diegritz1
1Department of Conservative Dentistry, Periodontology and Digital Dentistry, LMU University Hospital, LMU Medizin, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.
Journal of Dentistry
|June 26, 2026
Summary
Artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted software development empowers dentists without coding experience to create dental applications. This workflow enables prototyping for research and education, but clinical use requires rigorous validation and regulatory approval.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Dental Informatics
- Software Engineering
Background:
- Dental practitioners often face challenges in developing custom software solutions for research, education, and clinical support.
- Traditional software development requires specialized programming skills, limiting accessibility for many clinicians.
- Emerging artificial intelligence (AI) tools offer potential solutions to bridge this gap.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce a practical workflow for AI-assisted software engineering tailored for dentistry.
- To demonstrate the feasibility of this workflow by developing and showcasing three open-source dental applications.
- To highlight the potential of AI in democratizing software creation within the dental field.
Main Methods:
- Employed four AI-assisted development approaches: large language model chat interfaces, command-line tools, AI-integrated development environments, and agent-based architectures.
- Developed three distinct dental software applications: VirtualEndo Converter, MeshComparisonTool, and DentalEmergencyTrainer.
- All applications were created by a single clinician lacking formal programming training and are available as open-source projects.
Main Results:
- Successfully developed and deployed three functional dental applications: VirtualEndo Converter (for AR/VR), MeshComparisonTool (for 3D morphology comparison), and DentalEmergencyTrainer (for emergency simulations).
- All developed applications are publicly accessible on GitHub under the permissive MIT license.
- The workflow proved effective in enabling a non-programmer to create functional software prototypes.
Conclusions:
- AI-assisted software development offers a viable pathway for dental practitioners to create prototypes addressing unmet needs in research, education, and clinical support.
- While functional prototypes can be rapidly developed, their transition to clinical use necessitates comprehensive validation, security assessments, and regulatory compliance.
- Further studies are needed to establish the reproducibility and broad applicability of this AI-assisted development approach in dentistry.
