Detection of Dental Diseases through X-Ray Images Using Neural Search Architecture Network

An important aspect of the diagnosis procedure in daily clinical practice is the analysis of dental radiographs. This is because the dentist must interpret different types of problems related to teeth, including the tooth numbers and related diseases during the diagnostic process. For panoramic radiographs, this paper proposes a convolutional neural network (CNN) that can do multitask classification by classifying the X-ray images into three classes: cavity, filling, and implant. In this paper, convolutional neural networks are taken in the form of a NASNet model consisting of different numbers of max-pooling layers, dropout layers, and activation functions. Initially, the data will be augmented and preprocessed, and then, the construction of a multioutput model will be done. Finally, the model will compile and train the model; the evaluation parameters used for the analysis of the model are loss and the accuracy curves. The model has achieved an accuracy of greater than 96% such that it has outperformed other existing algorithms.

Descriptive analysis of dental X-ray images using various practical methods: A review

In dentistry, practitioners interpret various dental X-ray imaging modalities to identify tooth-related problems, abnormalities, or teeth structure changes. Another aspect of dental imaging is that it can be helpful in the field of biometrics. Human dental image analysis is a challenging and time-consuming process due to the unspecified and uneven structures of various teeth, and hence the manual investigation of dental abnormalities is at par excellence. However, automation in the domain of dental image segmentation and examination is essentially the need of the hour in order to ensure error-free diagnosis and better treatment planning. In this article, we have provided a comprehensive survey of dental image segmentation and analysis by investigating more than 130 research works conducted through various dental imaging modalities, such as various modes of X-ray, CT (Computed Tomography), CBCT (Cone Beam Computed Tomography), etc. Overall state-of-the-art research works have been classified into three major categories, i.e., image processing, machine learning, and deep learning approaches, and their respective advantages and limitations are identified and discussed. The survey presents extensive details of the state-of-the-art methods, including image modalities, pre-processing applied for image enhancement, performance measures, and datasets utilized.

Demystifying artificial intelligence and deep learning in dentistry

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a general term used to describe the development of computer systems which can perform tasks that normally require human cognition. Machine learning (ML) is one subfield of AI, where computers learn rules from data, capturing its intrinsic statistical patterns and structures. Neural networks (NNs) have been increasingly employed for ML complex data. The application of multilayered NN is referred to as "deep learning", which has been recently investigated in dentistry. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are mainly used for processing large and complex imagery data, as they are able to extract image features like edges, corners, shapes, and macroscopic patterns using layers of filters. CNN algorithms allow to perform tasks like image classification, object detection and segmentation. The literature involving AI in dentistry has increased rapidly, so a methodological guidance for designing, conducting and reporting studies must be rigorously followed, including the improvement of datasets. The limited interaction between the dental field and the technical disciplines, however, remains a hurdle for applicable dental AI. Similarly, dental users must understand why and how AI applications work and decide to appraise their decisions critically. Generalizable and robust AI applications will eventually prove helpful for clinicians and patients alike.

Panoramic Dental Radiography Image Enhancement Using Multiscale Mathematical Morphology

Panoramic dental radiography is one of the most used images of the different dental specialties. This radiography provides information about the anatomical structures of the teeth. The correct evaluation of these radiographs is associated with a good quality of the image obtained. In this study, 598 patients were consecutively selected to undergo dental panoramic radiography at the Department of Radiology of the Faculty of Dentistry, Universidad Nacional de Asunción. Contrast enhancement techniques are used to enhance the visual quality of panoramic dental radiographs. Specifically, this article presents a new algorithm for contrast, detail and edge enhancement of panoramic dental radiographs. The proposed algorithm is called Multi-Scale Top-Hat transform powered by Geodesic Reconstruction for panoramic dental radiography enhancement (MSTHGR). This algorithm is based on multi-scale mathematical morphology techniques. The proposal extracts multiple features of brightness and darkness, through the reconstruction of the marker (obtained by the Top-Hat transformation by reconstruction) starting from the mask (obtained by the classic Top-Hat transformation). The maximum characteristics of brightness and darkness are added to the dental panoramic radiography. In this way, the contrast, details and edges of the panoramic radiographs of teeth are improved. For the tests, MSTHGR was compared with the following algorithms: Geodesic Reconstruction Multiscale Morphology Contrast Enhancement (GRMMCE), Histogram Equalization (HE), Brightness Preserving Bi-Histogram Equalization (BBHE), Dual Sub-Image Histogram Equalization (DSIHE), Minimum Mean Brightness Error Bi-Histogram Equalization (MMBEBHE), Quadri-Histogram Equalization with Limited Contrast (QHELC), Contrast-Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE) and Gamma Correction (GC). Experimentally, the numerical results show that the MSTHGR obtained the best results with respect to the Contrast Improvement Ratio (CIR), Entropy (E) and Spatial Frequency (SF) metrics. This indicates that the algorithm performs better local enhancements on panoramic radiographs, improving their details and edges.