BOSTON, February 10, 2026 – Imagine a dentist spotting the earliest signs of oral cancer—not months or years down the line, but during a routine checkup, thanks to artificial intelligence. That future is closer than you think, as researchers are increasingly turning to AI to revolutionize dental care, from predicting cavities to streamlining administrative tasks.
AI’s Growing Role in the Dental Office
AI isn’t about replacing dentists; it’s about giving them superpowers to improve patient care and outcomes.
- AI can analyze vast amounts of patient data to predict oral health risks before symptoms appear.
- The technology is being developed to assist with tasks like reading X-rays and managing administrative duties.
- Dental students are now being trained to understand and utilize AI tools in their future practices.
- A new Dental AI Lab is fostering research and education in this rapidly evolving field.
Hend Alqaderi, an assistant professor in the Department of Public Health and Community Service at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, initially set out to understand how saliva could predict health risks like diabetes or the severity of COVID-19. Collecting thousands of saliva samples, each containing hundreds of bacteria types, presented a significant analytical challenge. “We couldn’t analyze every single bacterium in each saliva sample, so we had to choose which ones to use,” Alqaderi explained.
Her exploration led her to machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence, after learning colleagues were using it to analyze large datasets. “I became interested,” Alqaderi said. She subsequently completed two courses on AI at MIT three years ago and continues to analyze vast datasets. Today, she directs the Dental AI Lab, a joint appointment with the Tufts Institute for Artificial Intelligence (TIAI), and is incorporating AI education into the dental curriculum.
What can AI do for your next dental visit? The potential is broad. AI can help with scheduling, billing, insurance processing, and managing patient records—tasks that often consume a significant portion of a dentist’s time. “Dentists spend a lot of time documenting every single procedure and treatment planning,” Alqaderi says. “If we can use AI to free some time from dentists, they can focus more on the most important part, which is patient treatment and patient communication.”
Predicting Problems Before They Start
Beyond streamlining operations, AI offers the promise of preventative oral medicine. “We know some risk factors, such as socioeconomic status, diet, or smoking, but we still don’t have the ability to build software that can predict the disease before it is happening,” Alqaderi says. AI algorithms can analyze electronic dental records to identify patients most likely to develop cavities, oral cancer, or other conditions, much like the recommendation systems used by Netflix, Google, or Amazon.
The Tufts Dental AI Lab, soft-launched in July, is dedicated to research and education in this area, funded by California-based tech company Beyond Limits. Currently, the lab is focused on publishing academic papers, with a future goal of translating research into practical applications. One project involves developing AI models that can analyze X-rays, flagging suspicious areas for a dentist to review. “And the dentist can cross-check or verify after AI, this will save a lot of time,” Alqaderi says.
Preparing the Next Generation of Dentists
The lab’s projects involve collaboration between dental professionals and data scientists from the Tufts Institute for Artificial Intelligence. “We are the domain expertise, and they are the data scientists,” Alqaderi explains. To ensure dental students are prepared for this evolving landscape, Alqaderi led Tufts’ first Artificial Intelligence in Dentistry course during the fall semester. 240 third-year dental students attended 10 lectures covering AI concepts, ethics, treatment planning, and accessibility.
Students evaluate existing dental AI applications based on criteria like ethics and data quality, and participate in capstone projects alongside scientists from the TIAI. “We want our students to be ready to deal with AI in their clinics, to consider ethical considerations, and to be ready to critique and use it,” Alqaderi says.
Yash Brahmbhatt, founder of the Artificial Intelligence in Dental Research & Education Society, and a Tufts Dental student intern at the Tufts Institute of Artificial Intelligence, emphasizes the collaborative nature of AI in dentistry. “I wish more people understood that AI is not about replacing dentists, but about augmenting our skills to improve diagnosis, treatment planning, and patient outcomes,” Brahmbhatt says. “I am a firm believer that AI has the power to help our patients, and AI is already shaping health care. I also believe that properly trained AI models have the power to help patient outcomes immensely and can often catch diagnoses that humans might miss due to external factors like fatigue, stress, or accidental oversight.”
