FDA Clears X-Ray AI That Helps Spot Dental Cavities

The FDA has granted 510(k) clearance to a dental artificial intelligence (AI) system that helps detect cavities on dental X-rays.

The imaging algorithm from VideaHealth, called the Videa Caries Assist, uses data from the company's so-called Videa Factory that includes more than 100 million data points from dental service organizations, insurance companies, clearing houses, and universities to capture patient diversity and create an impartial algorithm.

In a clinical trial, missed cavities were reduced by 43 percent among dentists using the AI system, in addition to a 15 percent reduction in erroneous detections of lesions. A companion study completed with Heartland Dental echoed these results, showing an increase of 46 percent in lesions detected as well as a 13% improvement in diagnostic accuracy among dentists utilizing the platform.

“Our biggest priority as a team is ensuring that our solution is effective across diverse patient populations and helps dentists deliver the most accurate diagnoses," VideaHealth CEO Florian Hillen said in a statement. "This paves the way for more appropriate dental treatment recommendations and the opportunity for dentists to foster deeper patient engagement.”

VideaHealth expects that use of the imaging algorithm will not only improve diagnostic performance but also pass on cost-savings to patients by reducing unnecessary interventions.

VideaHealth's platform is just the latest to utilize AI to improve dental imaging analysis. The FDA previously gave the go-ahead to Overjet's Dental Assist program which helps measure bone loss seen on X-rays, and also recently cleared Pearl's Second Opinion software which helps detect cavities, inflammation, and tartar and monitors fillings, bridges, and other interventions.

REFERENCE

VideaHealth Dental AI Solution Receives FDA 510(k) Clearance, Establishing Industry-wide Benchmark for Clinical Accuracy. News release. VideaHealth. May 2, 2022. https://www.videa.ai/news/videahealth-dental-ai-solution-receives-fda-510-k-clearance-establishing-industry-wide-benchmark-for-clinical-accuracy