Reassessing the validity of AI cephalometric landmark identification: an analytical perspective on Ye et al. (2023)

To provide the public and non-specialist readers with clear insight, we re-evaluate a published study claiming that artificial intelligence (AI) software performs as accurately as orthodontist experts in identifying key points on dental X-ray images. Our analysis reveals flaws in the original research methods: inconsistent image processing led to unreliable measurements, and critical details about data sources were missing. Most importantly, when we repeated the experiment with new X-ray images and protocols, over 80% of the AI's landmark identifications showed significantly higher error rates than originally reported-contradicting the claim that AI matches expert accuracy. We urge methodological rigor in future studies on AI's role in dentistry.