Robotic dentist with AI was allowed to treat human teeth for the first time

Boston-based Perceptive has unveiled the world’s first robotic dentist, which, under the control of artificial intelligence, was able to independently perform a procedure on the teeth of a living person. Few people evoke warm feelings in the dental office, and hardly anyone wants to spend an extra hour in it. The robot created by Perceptive will help with this – it completes the procedure of filing teeth to install a crown in just 15 minutes instead of the usual 2-hour sessions.

Image source: Perceptive

The proposed solution has not yet been approved for clinical use, so robotic dentists will not appear in the arsenal of doctors any time soon. However, sooner or later this will happen. At the very least, telemedicine is becoming a practice, and this is a direct path to creating tools for performing remote operations and directly teaching them to AI platforms.

The Perceptive robotic dentist currently performs only one procedure – filing teeth for the upcoming installation of crowns. A human doctor usually schedules two two-hour sessions for this procedure. The robot, according to the developers, completed the task in 15 minutes. Moreover, the robot safely treats teeth even on a spinning patient.

«We are pleased to successfully complete the world’s first fully automated robotic dental procedure,” said Dr. Chris Ciriello, CEO and founder of Perceptive. “This medical breakthrough improves the precision and efficiency of dental procedures and democratizes access to higher quality dental care for patients with better clinical outcomes.” We look forward to improving our system and creating innovative, scalable, fully automated dental solutions for patients.”

Before the operation begins, the doctor scans the patient’s oral cavity with a hand-held OCT scanner. Based on the images obtained, which make it possible to detect all cavities in the teeth with 90% accuracy, a task is formulated for artificial intelligence (which is also discussed with the patient). After this, the robot gets to work and files the teeth with the precision of a computer-controlled machine. According to the company, it is quick, painless, accurate and, perhaps, at a more modest cost than the work of a human doctor.