The Eastman Institute uses AI to create an application for the early detection of caries

ROCHESTER, NY (WROC) – As kids prepare to get that large amount of Halloween candy, it’s also a time to talk about cavities! Now, an app being developed locally aims to empower families to deal with any potential dental problems and overall improve childhood oral health.

“So far there is no app or device that can detect tooth cavities.”

That is, until now…

Dr. Nisreen Al Jallad is an Assistant Professor at URMC’s Eastman Institute for Oral Health. She is piloting a new app currently in development at the facility, which uses artificial intelligence to detect cavities in the earliest stages.

“Dental cavity is one of the most common childhood diseases and when children have cavities they may not tell about their pain, but it will compromise their eating, sleeping, studying and daily activity”, says Dr. Al Jallad.

“If we can give parents or caregivers a tool, we can show them the first stage of a cavity, they can prevent it and they can close the door on baby cavities and pain,” she adds.

The app is called ‘SMARTteeth’ and here’s how it works: a parent or carer takes a photo of their child’s teeth and through AI technology, it will detect any signs of tooth decay.

How? Dr. Jiebo Luo is a computer science professor who has been working on app creation and development for years. He notes that the first step is to take professional graded images of the teeth, with different stages and forms of decay.

“We take the labeled data and train the artificial intelligence model, which is specifically a neural network. And the network, after training, can detect tooth decay with about the same accuracy as a trained dentist.”, Dr. Luo.

The aim is also to help bridge a gap when it comes to dental access. This year, the Institute was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to expand the effort beyond the app itself.

“Our goal is to build a smart and connected oral health community so we can use community centers and community health workers to help install the app, train parents on how to use the app and also to perform additional tests, such as “Ultimately we want to connect families with dental health providers in the network and then revolutionize dental care from the actual practice,” says Dr. Luo.

SMARTeeth is not yet fully available for free download. It is still in the pilot testing stages and the security aspects are being finalized.