Artificial intelligence can help to create customised dental crowns within seconds, team led by HKU scientists says
- International team led by University of Hong Kong says their algorithm can produce personalised crowns that fit better than conventionally made ones
- Breakthrough seen as a key step towards leveraging the dental industry in the Greater Bay Area, a key producer of tooth prostheses globally
The team of dental and computer scientists said the AI-generated crowns are almost identical to the natural shape of teeth and fit better than those made by conventional methods.
The crowns are customised based on data from the teeth adjacent to the tooth that needs to be replaced, according to team.
Dental crowns are recommended for patients with damaged teeth, either as a result of accidents or injuries, or for those who need root canal surgery to treat infections.
Currently, it takes about five to 15 minutes to design a crown, using software where crown templates are fine-tuned to better suit the patient, according to lead researcher James Tsoi Kit-hon, an associate professor in dental materials science at HKU.
But there are no universal standards for the design of the chewing surface of the dental crown. Current artificial crowns also mainly rely on a try-on to see if patients feel any discomfort.