44 AUSTRALASIAN DENTIST INSIGHT 2025 Insight 2025 As we emerge from the financial crises post-COVID and from the global economic challenges of 2023/2024, patients are once again embracing needed and elective dental care. To meet this demand, dental professionals must enhance diagnostic efficiency and streamline clinical workflows to offer cost-effective services while maintaining high-quality patient care. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is set to revolutionise dentistry, offering advancements in diagnostics, treatment planning, and patient management. As AI technology evolves, its integration into dental practices presents opportunities and challenges that must be carefully managed to maximise benefits while upholding ethical and professional standards. The future of dentistry: Beyond 2025 and AI From Dr Derry Rogers Clinical Director, DR Institute Enhanced diagnosis and treatment planning Incorporating AI into treatment planning ensures procedures are cost-effective and personalised. AI helps manage patient data, predict treatment responses, and improve decision-making. Companies like Co-Treat are at the forefront, developing AIpowered systems that analyse X-rays and intraoral photographs to generate optimal treatment plans. Comprehensive patient interviews can be conducted using AI systems, eliminating the need for manual notetaking. Tools such as Heidi and Digital TCO streamline history-taking processes, ensuring a thorough understanding of a patient’s dental background and reinforcing transparency in discussions. AI-driven analysis can detect early signs of oral diseases, improving treatment outcomes. For instance, Co-Treat utilises AI analysis of JPEG intraoral photographs to assist in early pathology detection and enhance clinical decision-making. Combining the co-discovery treatment discussion of intra-oral photographs and other collected data with the AI diagnostic engine, adds more value to our clinical recommendations. AI-Powered X-ray analysis Radiographic examination is a key diagnostic tool in dentistry yet interpreting X-rays quickly and accurately remains challenging due to complex anatomical structures and disease progression. With the digitisation of dental images, AI Dentistry, not immune from an uncertain global economy, is facing challenging times. Where certain challenges are undoubtedly specific to the profession, we should consider our own distinctive solutions to our troubling issues. Australasian Dentist has invited prominent members of the dental profession and the dental industry to offer insights that may shape dentistry in the year ahead. We hope these insights serve as a valuable guide.
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