I am interested in a recent publication in Osteoporosis and Sarcopenia Journal with dental students screening ability after brief (30-min) education [1]. Students who showed “moderate to substantial” interobserver agreement with expert oral radiologist of panoramic radiography revealed the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve value 0.77, which is better than the classic the Osteoporosis Self-assessment Tool for Asians Model (AUROC 0.56) for osteoporosis screening.
Artificial intelligence (AI) models in healthcare are emerging including osteoporosis. Machine learning trained with panoramic radiography with women has been published [2]. Panoramic view of dental X-ray can evaluate mandibular cortical morphology including mandibular inferior cortex and mandibular cortical index.
Comparing AI model to dental students or specialists might be interesting. Either way, dental panoramic X-ray can be considered with early detection (screening) for systemic osteoporosis. As expected, the dentists could refer (or consult) to the physicians for evaluation of possible osteoporosis especially women over 51 years of age.
Conflicts of interest
The author declares no competing interests.
Acknowledgments
ORCID Yoon-Sok Chung: 0000-0003-0179-4386.
References
- 1.Osanai H, Kuroiwa H, Yamada S, Sugino N, Nakamoto T, Ohtsuka M, et al. Screening ability of dental students to detect osteoporosis on dental panoramic radiographs. Osteoporos Sarcopenia. 2024;10:145–150. doi: 10.1016/j.afos.2024.10.002. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Ogawa R, Ogura I. Quantitative analysis of mandibular cortical morphology using artificial intelligence-based computer assisted diagnosis for panoramic radiography on underlying diseases and dental status in women over 20 years of age. J Dent Sci. 2024;19:937–944. doi: 10.1016/j.jds.2023.07.030. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]