Detection of dental caries under fixed dental prostheses by analyzing digital panoramic radiographs with artificial intelligence algorithms based on deep learning methods.

backgroundThe aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of detecting dental caries under fixed dental prostheses (FDPs) through the analysis of panoramic radiographs utilizing convolutional neural network (CNN) based You Only Look Once (YOLO) models. Deep learning algorithms can analyze datasets of dental images, such as panoramic radiographs to accurately identify and classify carious lesions. Using artificial intelligence, specifically deep learning methods, may help practitioners to detect and diagnose caries using radiograph images.

methodsThe panoramic radiographs of 1004 patients, who had FDPs on their teeth and met the inclusion criteria, were divided into 904 (90%) images as training dataset and 100 (10%) images as the test dataset. Following the attainment of elevated detection scores with YOLOv7, regions of interest (ROIs) containing FDPs were automatically detected and cropped by the YOLOv7 model. In the second stage, 2467 cropped images were divided into 2248 (91%) images as the training dataset and 219 (9%) images as the test dataset. Caries under the FDPs were detected using both the YOLOv7 and the improved YOLOv7 (YOLOv7 + CBAM) models. The performance of the deep learning models used in the study was evaluated using recall, precision, F1, and mean average precision (mAP) scores.

resultsIn the first stage, the YOLOv7 model achieved 0.947 recall, 0.966 precision, 0.968 mAP and 0.956 F1 scores in detecting the FDPs. In the second stage the YOLOv7 model achieved 0.791 recall, 0.837 precision, 0.800 mAP and 0.813 F1 scores in detecting the caries under the FDPs, while the YOLOv7 + CBAM model achieved 0.827 recall, 0.834 precision, 0.846 mAP, and 0.830 F1 scores.

conclusionThe use of deep learning models to detect dental caries under FDPs by analyzing panoramic radiographs has shown promising results. The study highlights that panoramic radiographs with appropriate image features can be used in combination with a detection system supported by deep learning methods. In the long term, our study may allow for accurate and rapid diagnoses that significantly improve the preservation of teeth under FDPs.