Exploring the prospects of artificial intelligence in transforming dental care for special needs groups: A Scoping Review

Introduction The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in various realms of dental practice has been ground-breaking. Their application in providing quality dental care to individuals with special needs has been scarcely explored and hold potential to be transformative. This Scoping review aims to evaluate the evidence on application of AI tools in special care dentistry, their prospects and challenges to their use. Methods A comprehensive review was carried with search strategy involved the use of the keywords along with Boolean operators: (“artificial intelligence”) AND (“Intellectual disability” OR “Physical disability” OR “Medically compromised” OR “Geriatric” OR “Elderly”) AND (“dentistry”). Databases searched included PubMed, Google scholar, Scopus and Web of Science, including studies that were available as full- text and published in English language. The study characteristics were evaluated for the AI tool used, special groups involved and the aspect of dental care. Results Five studies were included in the review, that studied AI tools used for diagnosis, treatment planning, patient risk prediction, surveillance and behaviour management of these groups, with one study of the five assessing the perception of dentists on their use. The AI tools exhibited high accuracy (88–95%) and user acceptance (> 85%) with most dentists (74.4%) recommending its use in special care dentistry. Conclusions This scoping review and evidence syntheses highlighted the potential of AI in enhancing dental care for those needing special care, while also indicating the research gap necessitating future studies that are scientifically robust and based on real- world applications.