Transforming Dental Infection Diagnosis with Deep Learning: A Comprehensive Review

Several dental infections ranging from dental caries to periodontitis and ending in oral malignancies create a significant global healthcare concern. Advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems can now demonstrate powerful capabilities for automated identification of various dental conditions while reducing the need for human professionals to perform diagnostic tasks manually and saving their valuable treatment time. The review details up-to-date AI detection techniques which focus on three major dental infections by assessing research work from 2017 to 2024 utilizing different types of radiographic images. The article accounts for examination of numerous diagnosis structures and their diagnostic applications in dentistry through a well-structured comparative analysis revealing both infection types and implemented deep learning (DL) algorithms. This review delivers an essential critical assessment of the present situation which functions as an important reference for dental practitioners and researchers in understanding AI tooth infection detection methods better, while guiding the upcoming developments in dental AI applications.