افشین حراجی

Artificial intelligence in dental science is a powerful tool for diagnosis, treatment and prevention. One of the most important applications of artificial intelligence in dental science is accurate diagnosis through radiological imagesDeep learning algorithms enable machines to analyze images better than even professional dentists. Another application of artificial intelligence in dentistry is personalization of treatments or Individual Dentistry. The scanners provide the best treatment by recording the patient's oral condition and artificial intelligence using the stored information. Artificial intelligence algorithms can identify hidden patterns and help dentists take preventive measures. Today, artificial intelligence has opened its place in dental education and research. The purpose of this review article is to investigate the application of artificial intelligence in the science and art of dentistry.

This review was conducted using the electronic versions of the articles available in Pubmed/Medline, Scopus (Elsevier), Web of Sciences (Claritive Analytics) from 2020 to 2023 using the keywords Artificial Intelligence, Dentistry, Education. . All the studies were in English and finally 123 articles were found in the search, of which 43 matched the desired titles, were selected and analyzed.

Artificial intelligence is a reliable tool in diagnosing, increasing the quality of treatment and predicting the failures of dental treatments, and its limitations include the lack of familiarity of dentists, expensive equipment and the complexity of working with it, and until the limitations are resolved, it can be used as an auxiliary tool in dentistry.

Teaching and learning through peers during education can encourage students towards this type of teaching and learning and improve their practical and theoretical skills. The determination of the attitude of oral and maxillofacial surgery residents about the quality of efficacy of peer learning.

This qualitative study was conducted on 8 oral, maxillofacial surgery residents from the first to the fifth year studying at the Faculty of Dentistry of Tehran Islamic Azad University of Medical Sciences in the academic year of 2022-2023. A semi-structured questionnaire including areas of practical skills, theoretical knowledge, communication skills, mastery of college rules and regulations, and job skills was designed by the researcher. Assistants' attitudes were measured through interviews and their answers to questionnaire questions were reported.

  The results showed that in all topics of basic science group education, Ground Round meetings, and in Minor surgery teaching was done by professors to residents. In some cases, if professors are assigned to perform surgery, the training process takes place under the supervision of the senior year. Senior assistants believed that at the beginning of their training in the hospital, due to the lack of access to professors, their training was done through assistants. In most cases, training was done by observation and peer teaching process did not happen. In the discussion of integrating peer learning into the educational curriculum, the residents' opinions were that despite the usefulness of this teaching method, forcing to use it, especially tying certain topics for teaching in this way, cannot be useful.

The results of this research indicate the need for educational institutions and universities to pay more attention to student-centered educational methods such as peer learning, because the use of these methods can complement the teacher's teaching by providing a positive experience and lasting and deep learning.

Considering the increase in complaints and its negative impact on the quality of dental services, it seems necessary to review complaint files.The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of complaints referred by patients to dental professionals in the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery, periodontal, oral & maxillofacial medicine, oral & maxillofacial pathology to the Department of Forensic Medicine Commissions of Tehran Province in the years 1397-1399.

This descriptive study was performed by referring to the center of Tehran Forensic Medicine Commission and reviewing the relevant files and available data. Data collection was done through an information form that included the demographic characteristics of the complainant, the defendant, the type of treatment and the outcome of the first and second commissions.

Among the 245 complaints that have been registered in the Forensic Medicine Commissions of Tehran Province in the years 1397-1399 in relation to the mentioned fields of treatment, most of the complainants were in the age group of 30- 39 years (34.9%), women (58.4%), diploma (30.3%), unemployed (34%) and married (69.3%). 13.2% of therapists were non-dentists. Most therapists were 50-59 years old (30.9%), male (73.3%) and had a doctor of dental surgery degree (74.1%). Most complaints were from oral & maxillofacial surgery (82.9%).

Most of the complainants appear to be women, married, in the age range of 30-39, and have a diploma. Most therapists are male, general dentist and in the age range of 50-59 years. Most complaints are about oral & maxillofacial surgery.

The prevalence of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has thus far forced most schools and universities to change their conventional teaching methods and to encourage virtual education. The present study aimed to investigate the attitudes of faculty members and students of dentistry, at Islamic Azad University, Tehran Medical Science, towards virtual education of theoretical courses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this study, a total number of 300 faculty members and students of dentistry, at Islamic Azad University, Tehran Medical Science, meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria were recruited. The sampling was also performed using proportional stratified random sampling technique. The data were further collected by an electronic designed questionnaire which its validity and reliability were approved referred to Tabatabaee et. Al study with Cronbach α=0.7 using test-retest method. The results were analysed via the independent-samples t-test and Q-square test.

Among the participants, 96 cases (32%) were faculty members and 204 individuals (68%) were students of dentistry. Of the faculty members, there were 40 men (41.7%) and 56 women (58.3%). With regard to the students’ gender, 86 respondents (42.2%) were male and 118 cases (57.8%) were female. Out of 204 students, 83 cases (40.7%) were enrolled in the basic science courses and 121 respondents (59.3%) were taking clinical ones. With regard to the virtual education of theoretical courses, the attitudes of the faculty members and the students of dentistry in terms of the effectiveness of virtual education and the associated factors as well as the subjective-emotional factors demonstrated a significant difference (p<0.05), Nevertheless, the attitudes of the faculty members and the students on the challenges of virtual education were not significantly different (p>0.05).

According to the study results, virtual education can be practiced as favorable among faculty members compared with students of dentistry. Failure to establish face-to-face communication between teachers and students along with hardware problems can be thus deemed as barriers in this respect.

The new coronavirus - 2 is known to be a major threat to public health around the world. Common ways of transmitting the virus include direct transmission (sneezing, coughing and inhaling infected droplets and aerosols) and contact transmission (oral mucosa, nose and conjunctiva). When dental services are provided, large amounts of aerosols are produced during working with equipment. Iran was one of the main centers for the spread of the disease at the beginning of the epidemic, so this study evaluates the extent and severity of COVID-19 in the pre- and post-quarantine period.

The study was conducted through an online questionnaire, in which 1,100 member of dental association volunteered to participate in the study.

Since past 3 months, 74 (28.1%) reported Covid-19 symptoms, while totally, 18(2.2%) had definite infection. Ceramists had the highest incidence (50%) and dental students had the lowest incidence (19.3%) of symptoms. Among dental treatment staff, definitive rate of COVID-19 was higher in ceramists and dental students compare to dentists and dental specialists. In this study, 11.8% of the participants knew one of the members of the medical staff who died of COVID-19. The mean age of definite patients was 35.24 ± 12.24 yarrs old.

The low rate of definitive infection of dental treatment staff in this study shows that disinfection of the environment and sterilization and use of protective devices can normally be effective and useful in preventing the spread of disease and infection.

Regarding the prevalence of postoperative pain of impacted wisdom tooth and the fact that Pregabalin herbal medicine has been reported to reduce the pain, and to determine the effect of its consumption/ non-consumption on the amount of pain after surgery of Impacted Wisdom Tooth, this study was conducted at 2018 in Department of Oral 7 Maxillofacial surgery, Dentistry faculty, Tehran medical sciences, Islamic Azad University.

This study was performed as a split Mouth-type clinical trial. A total of 30 patients who referred for pulling out the two-way impacted wisdom tooth and, after justifying the plan, they announced their written and informed consent to collaborate with the plan. One side of the jaw is randomly assigned to the control group and the other to the experimental group. The dentist surgeon and consuming material were the same. In the experimental group, half an hour before surgery, one pregabalin 300 mg was prescribed with 50 ml of water but the control group did not receive the drug. The surgical distance in 2 sides was 2 weeks and the pain was measured at intervals 2, 4, 6 and 8 hours after surgery based on 10 VAS and assessed by Mann-U-Whitney and Kruskal Wallis tests.

The study was performed on 30 or 60 samples, 70% of the samples were male and 30% were female at the age of 31±8.2.The pain level was similar in 2 groups at the second hour (P<0.6) but at the 4th hour  it was 5.63±1.94 and 3.7±1.56  in  control and experimental gourps, respectively.At 6th hour, it was 6.93±1.95 and 4.55±2.2 in control and  experimental groups and at 8th hour, 8.35±1.76 VS 5.9±1.94, respectively. (P<0.01) and (P<0.002).

It seems, Pregabalin reduces the pain in Impacted Wisdom Tooth surgery and pain reduction raised from 4th to 8th hour.

Most dentists extract wisdom teeth. The complications and costs of this procedures, different ideas concerning the need to remove of these teeth, was the purpose of this study. Methods and Materials: Two hundred patients had at least one impacted wisdom tooth in the mandible. After clinical and radiographic examination, factors such as: smoking, degree of eruption, type of impaction, periodontal pocket depth, history of pericoronitis were recorded. The results were analyzed with SPSS software and Chi square and odds ratio tests.

After 3 years follow - up, 58 teeth (29%) were extracted. No correlation between the history of pericoronitis at the start of the study and incidence of removal was seen.

the need for prophylactic removal of mandibular impactions is not warranted. We advise more research in this matter.