Dental Students’ Opinions on Use of Artificial Intelligence: A Survey Study

Introduction

Intelligence has been defined as the ability to acquire and maintain various knowledge and problem-solving skills. It also involves critical thinking, learning by experience, and continuous improvement components [1]. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a field of science and engineering associated with imitation, modeling, or simulation behaviors specific to human intelligence, including thinking, learning, problem-solving, and decision-making using technology [2,3].

In 1950, British computer scientist Alan Turing wondered if computers could be equivalent to human reasoning and asked, “Can machines think?” Accordingly, he introduced the Turing Test for the evaluation of AI. The test involved a human interrogator, who would analyze written responses by both a computer and a human. If the interrogator could see no difference between the responses, the computer was considered to have passed the test. Although many programs and chatbots have passed the Turing Test, arguably, they used strategies designed to pass the test rather than resorting to true intelligence [4].

Machine learning is considered one of the most important strategies for effectively operating AI. This method allows the software to learn autonomously from the data, enabling classification and prediction. Furthermore, AI systems have been further improved with deep learning algorithms capable of experiential learning to perform certain tasks, including voice recognition and data processing. Deep learning, as a sub-branch of machine learning, enables AI to train itself [5,6].

In recent years, the use of AI in healthcare has been increasing, leading to significant transformations in dental practice. AI is utilized as a clinical decision support system in areas such as radiological imaging, diagnosis, and treatment planning. By facilitating physicians’ work with solutions to different clinical problems, AI has the potential to revolutionize the medicine and dentistry fields, which is associated with accelerated integration. The development of such technologies has positively impacted many fields, including dental image analysis, caries detection, radiography, pathology, and electronic recording systems [7].

AI can be used in dentistry to integrate clinical processes with managerial components, using the clinic’s database to build models and predict specific needs. Different therapeutic solutions can be offered with AI support based on defined pathology, the extent of the damage, the patient’s general state of health, and the local or regional diagnoses of the dentist, as well as predicting factors associated with the duration of treatment, number of sessions, and related costs. This approach allows treatment planning in a virtual environment and organizes payment amounts for each therapeutic solution [8,9].

Notwithstanding the affirmative aspects of AI above, it is of great importance to develop ethical, unbiased, responsible, and clinically validated algorithms to maximize AI’s benefits and minimize the risks for patients and healthcare providers [10].

AI technology is rapidly spreading across the healthcare sector and has the potential for a major transformation in clinical areas, including dentistry. AI in dentistry can offer significant innovations in dental imaging, diagnostic processes, caries detection, and treatment planning [7–9]. These technologies are associated with improved patient satisfaction and clinical efficiency based on increased diagnostic accuracy [7]. Despite the rapid advancement of AI in dentistry, the level of knowledge and perspectives of dental students regarding these technologies remains unclear. The integration of AI into dental education in Turkiye is still in its infancy, and this situation constitutes an important deficiency in terms of the effective use of this technology by future dentist.

The present study has been designed to examine the knowledge levels, professional evaluations and educational needs of dental students in Turkiye with regard to AI technologies. In particular, it was sought to determine students’ awareness of the role, potential and future impacts of AI in the field of dentistry, and to analyze whether this level of awareness differs according to variables such as class level, gender and socioeconomic status. Furthermore, the study sought to evaluate student perspectives on the integration of AI into the dental education curriculum and to ascertain the educational needs in this field.

Material and Methods

STUDY DESIGN:

This study constitutes a cross-sectional survey designed to evaluate the views of university students studying at dental faculties in different regions of Turkiye towards AI. The research team adapted questionnaires that had previously been validated in different countries and languages [11–16].

PARTICIPANTS AND SAMPLING:

In this study, the target population consisted of students enrolled in dental faculties. The inclusion criteria required that participants be actively studying at a faculty of dentistry and voluntarily participate in the survey.

The sample size was calculated as a minimum of 122 participants, based on a 95% confidence level (1-α), 80% test power (1-β), and an effect size of w=0.391 [17].

DATA COLLECTION PROCESS:

The survey was administered online via Google Forms. University coordinators received an email containing a link to the survey to facilitate student participation. At the beginning of the survey, participants were presented with a consent form providing detailed information about the study. Upon giving their consent, they were directed to complete the survey. It was emphasized that the survey was conducted entirely anonymously and that participants could withdraw from the study at any time. The data collection process lasted approximately 2 months, with reminder emails sent every 2 weeks.

SURVEY STRUCTURE AND CONTENT:

The survey consists of 2 sections (Table 1):

Demographic Information: This includes variables such as the participant’s gender, family income status, the university where the participant studies, and the participant’s academic year.

Views on AI: This comprises questions designed to assess participants’ opinions on the applications of AI, its professional impact, its integration into the education process, and ethical concerns.

A pilot study was conducted to evaluate the comprehensibility, reliability, and results of the survey. The study was carried out by 2 authorized experts with 10 dental students. In the pilot study, the completion time of the survey, participants’ understanding of the questions, and the validity and reliability of the information were assessed. Based on the feedback received, the survey was revised accordingly.

A 3-point Likert-type scale was used to obtain clear and comprehensible responses from participants in the ‘forced choice’ format [18]. This scale helps identify clear trends by reducing the tendency to provide overly neutral answers, encouraging participants to evaluate questions more carefully, and facilitating more distinct differences between responses. In assessing opinions on AI, this method was chosen to minimize undecided responses among participants.

The survey was administered in Turkish, the official language of the Republic of Turkiye, and dental students receive their education in Turkish.

SURVEY VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY:

During the course of the data analysis, the validity and reliability of the survey were examined. The Keiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test was calculated as 0.837, and the result of Bartlett’s test was p<0.001. The factor analysis explained 49.27% of the total variance, with Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient calculated as 0.831 for Factor 1 and 0.600 for Factor 2. The analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics v23.

ETHICAL APPROVAL AND PARTICIPANT RIGHTS:

Ethical approval was obtained from Fırat University Non-Interventional Research Ethics Committee prior to the commencement of the study (date: 10.24.2024, protocol no: 2024/14-19). All participants were thoroughly informed about the purpose of the study, and participation was entirely voluntary. Participants provided explicit consent at the beginning of the survey and were informed of their right to withdraw from the study at any time.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS:

The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics v23 software. All responses were examined in detail. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all questions, and frequency and percentage values were reported. Pearson’s Chi-square test was used to assess the relationship between categorical variables, while the Bonferroni-corrected Z-test was applied for multiple comparisons. The descriptive statistics of categorical variables were presented as frequency, number (n), and percentage (%). A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results

AWARENESS ABOUT THE USE OF AI:

Only 28.5% of the participants (n=240) responded that they affirmed the statement, “I know the AI applications used in healthcare services”. Nevertheless, the rate of respondents who responded they had information about AI-based dental software (e.g., ORCA Dental AI, Denti AI, VideaHealth, etc.) was as low as 10% (Table 3).

Upon analyses by grade, 21.9% of the third-year students had information on this subject, while this rate increased to 50% in fifth-year students (P<0.001) (Table 3). Additionally, upon analysis by sex, 10.5% of female students and 4.3% of male students responded that they did not have information about AI applications in healthcare services (p=0.003) (Table 3). This difference was statistically significant. There was no statistically significant relationship between family income level and AI awareness (p=0.058) (Table 4).

DENTAL STUDENTS OPINIONS ON THE IMPACT OF AI IN DENTISTRY:

About 78.1% (n=657) of the participants stated that AI would lead to significant advancements in dentistry and medicine. Analysis by grade level showed that fourth- and fifth-year students were significantly more likely to agree with this view compared to students in other years (p<0.001) (Table 3). Furthermore, 18.1% of the participants believed that AI could serve as a definitive diagnostic tool in disease identification. This rate was 14.4% among female participants and 23.9% among male participants (p=0.002) (Table 3). Additionally, 22.1% of the participants agreed that AI could pose a threat to the dentistry profession (n=186). Specifically, while 16.4% of first-year students agreed with this view, this rate increased to 20.7% among fifth-year students (p<0.001) (Table 3).

INTEGRATING AI INTO THE CURRICULUM:

About 65.8% of the participants (n=553) responded that AI should be included in the undergraduate curriculum. Similarly, 64.1% (n=539) responded that it should be integrated into postgraduate education (Table 3). Upon comparisons by grade, the interest and willingness of the senior year students in AI education were higher (p<0.001) (Table 3).

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF AI APPLICATIONS:

About 43.5% of the study participants (n=366) responded that AI might pose ethical problems. There was a significant difference in responses to this item by sex; 46.6% of female students maintained this concern, compared to 38.7% of male students (p=0.003) (Table 3).

The overall rate of students who agreed with the statement, “AI has no limitations in professional practices” was 16.9% (n=142). By sex, this rate was 13.6% for female students and 22.1% for male students (p=0.005) (Table 3).

FAMILY INCOME LEVEL AND OPINIONS ON AI:

Upon reviewing responses to the “AI applications should be a part of undergraduate dentistry education” statement by family income level, 8.2% of students with family income below expenses disagreed. The same rate was 15.9% in students with a family income above expenses (p=0.029) (Table 4).

Overall, 22.1% of the participants (n=186) believed that AI could threaten the professional practice of dentists. The same rate was 28.7% in participants with a family income below expenses and 17.1% in participants with a family income above expenses (p<0.001) (Table 4).

Discussion

It was suggested that AI would majorly impact medicine and diagnostic radiology. AI has the potential to revolutionize the healthcare sector, and it is important to understand how dental professionals and students perceive this technology. With increased momentum associated with integrating AI into the healthcare sector, dentists’ understanding and adoption of this technology would require them to take active roles as both users and producers in the future. Therefore, dentists must have the required willingness and competency toward AI technologies in adopting these services and taking a leading role in production processes. Accordingly, it is crucial to investigate the use of AI, its limitations, advantages, and ethical issues, and especially the curricula of universities should keep pace and provide the necessary education about AI for future dentists.

This study aimed to investigate the awareness, perspectives, and opinions of dental students in Turkiye regarding AI technologies. The findings indicate that AI awareness among dental students is relatively low, with only 28.5% of participants reporting familiarity with AI applications in healthcare, and an even lower percentage (10%) being aware of AI-based dental software. Furthermore, 78.1% of students expressed a positive outlook on AI’s potential to drive significant advancements in dentistry, while 22.1% raised concerns about its possible impact on the profession. The study also revealed a significant difference in awareness levels and the willingness to incorporate AI into the curriculum between senior and junior students.

This study is important for analyzing the inadequacies of dental students, and the study results can be used to increase their awareness. AI has been a topic of interest across the globe, and previous studies have conducted surveys with dentists [11–13,19]. This study investigated dental students’ perspectives and opinions on AI in dentistry across Türkiye. A review of 841 participants who met the inclusion criteria shows that most participants believed that AI would make tangible and positive contributions to dentistry. This result suggested that there was a strong consensus that AI had the potential to have an innovative impact on professional practice.

Previous studies have shown that dental students lack sufficient knowledge of AI. Nevertheless, it has been posited that this technology has the potential to act as a significant agent of transformation within the profession [16].

In the present study, 28.5% of the participants responded, “I know the AI applications used in healthcare services”. This result was not consistent with some previous studies [13, 20]. With responses to a more specific item, which asked about current software in the dental field, the same rate dropped to 10%. Similar to the present study, a Serbian study by Roganović et al. of 2023 reported the rate of participants who responded, “I know the AI applications used in healthcare services” as 14.6%. Similarly, the rate decreased to 10.9% when current software in the dental field was questioned [12]. Our findings align with previous research [21], which also reported that while dental students have a general understanding of AI, they lack specific knowledge about its applications in clinical dentistry.

Herein, 78.1% of the participants believed that AI would pave the way for significant future advances in dentistry and medicine. This result was consistent with that of studies by Seram et al. in India in 2021 and Karan-Romero et al. in Peru in 2023; both studies reported that most participants agreed that AI would play a critical role in dentistry shortly [19,22]. This consistency may be explained by the fact that AI encompasses a wide range of technologies that have continued transforming everyday life. AI enables big data analytics, providing reliable information and improving decision-making [23].

Similar to previous studies, 61.2% of the participants in this study did not believe that dentists would be replaced by AI in the future [19]. Given the interaction between dentists and patients, any replacement of dentists by AI is associated with a greater challenge than other professions. Unlike humans, “the capacity of an AI device to develop a high level of trust, calmness, and empathy with the patient, which is fundamental in dental services, is limited” [24].

This study investigated dental students’ perspectives and opinions on AI applications in dentistry in Türkiye and indicated that students generally recognized the importance of AI in dental practice. In the present study, 75.5% of the students responded that AI could improve diagnosis and treatment planning processes in dental treatment, which was in line with the rate of 67.6%, as reported by a Saudi Arabian study [20]. AI has revolutionized the accuracy of diagnostics and dental treatment planning in healthcare, as it allows streamlining tasks to achieve results in less time and increase practice efficiency by saving dentist resources [19]. Furthermore, all these factors might account for 67.2% of the agreement with the statement, “AI will play an important role in dentists’ practice of their profession”.

Participants of the present study agreed that basic AI education should be included in dental curricula. About 65.8% of the participants responded that AI should be taught in undergraduate and 64.1% in graduate programs. As seen in the present study, interest in learning AI was also reported by previous studies in the United Arab Emirates [13], which reported that 61.9% and 76.1% of respondents believed AI should be included in undergraduate and postgraduate curricula, respectively. Consistent with our findings, Dashti et al. [21] highlighted the necessity of integrating AI into dental education. These results suggest that students would like to receive more education on AI and that the dental education curriculum in Turkiye should be updated to meet this demand.

The lack of AI-related training for students has been noted in previous studies; however, this study is among the first to highlight the need for integrating AI into the dental curriculum in Turkiye [16].

The present study found that a significant proportion of students expressed ethical concerns regarding the use of AI in dentistry. Approximately 43.5% of participants indicated that AI could raise ethical concerns. Consistent with our findings, previous research has shown that female dentists tend to be more aware of the ethical challenges associated with AI compared to their male counterparts [21]. These findings highlight the need for AI education to incorporate discussions on ethical implications, patient privacy, and professional responsibilities.

Our findings indicate that economic factors play a role in shaping students’ perspectives on AI in dentistry. Students from higher-income families were more likely to support AI integration into dental education, whereas those from lower-income backgrounds expressed greater concerns about AI’s impact on professional practice. This aligns with previous research, such as the systematic review by [21], which highlights the influence of economic status on dental students’ perspectives on AI in dental education. Economic disparities may limit access to AI-related educational resources, training opportunities, and overall readiness to adopt AI technologies in clinical practice. These findings suggest that AI-focused educational programs should address economic barriers and ensure equitable access to training for students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.

Despite the increase in the number of scientific studies, the results of this study clearly showed that Turkish dental students still had a significant lack of education and knowledge about AI. Nevertheless, this situation once again suggested the interest of dental students in AI and their willingness to learn. Participants agreed that the basic principles of AI must be included in dental education, consistent with other studies [2,13,25,26]. Nevertheless, the study results suggested that senior students were also the least concerned about AI technology and had the most accurate knowledge, which indicated that AI education for undergraduate students should be improved.

The most frequently anticipated contributions of AI-based applications included automated lesion detection and measurement capabilities as validated by dentists. Many AI systems are designed to identify lesions using deep learning algorithms and perform measurements necessary for caries diagnosis [27]. The participants of the present study agreed that AI technology could be used as a treatment planning tool in the diagnosis and planning of dental treatment, as a prognostic tool to predict the course of a disease and determine whether there was a chance of recovery, as a quality control tool to evaluate the success of treatments, and in forensic odontology. The limited integration of AI education curricula in Turkiye is associated with limitations in the level of knowledge and awareness about the applicability of this technology. Similarly, previous studies reported that the inclusion of AI in undergraduate curricula increased students’ level of competence and reduced occupational fears [10]. Accordingly, it was suggested that AI should be included in the dental education curriculum in Turkiye in a broader sense. Implementing this proposal into practice complies with training future dentists as professionals who can develop this technology rather than individuals who use AI. Future studies can investigate the long-term effects of integrating AI education into the undergraduate curriculum and how it influences changes in students’ knowledge and opinions. Furthermore, comparative studies across different countries can help provide a better understanding of the effects of cultural and educational differences on dental students’ perspectives on AI.

The present study has several limitations that should be acknowledged. First, as a cross-sectional study, it captures a snapshot of dental students’ perspectives at a specific point in time, limiting the ability to assess changes in awareness and opinions over time. Second, the study relies on self-reported survey data, which may introduce response bias, as participants might provide socially desirable answers rather than their actual opinions. Third, despite efforts to include students from various dental faculties, the sample may not fully represent all dental students in Turkiye. Finally, conducting the survey online may have excluded students with limited internet access or digital literacy.

Regarding methodological limitations, this study employed a three-point Likert scale, which, while effective in minimizing neutral responses, may have limited participants’ ability to express more nuanced opinions. Furthermore, the study focused on AI awareness and perspectives rather than practical competencies, meaning that students’ actual ability to use AI in clinical practice was not assessed. Despite these limitations, the study provides valuable insights into dental students’ awareness, perspectives, and educational needs concerning AI integration into dentistry. Future research could benefit from longitudinal designs and mixed-method approaches to gain a deeper understanding of students’ evolving views and practical competencies in AI.

Conclusions

This study found that dental students perceive AI as a valuable tool for the future of the profession. The majority of students acknowledged the potential of AI in dentistry, yet significant gaps in awareness and practical knowledge were evident. While many students supported AI integration into clinical practice and education, ethical concerns and uncertainties regarding professional transformation were also prominent.

These findings underscore the necessity of developing educational programs to enhance AI awareness and competency among dental students. The integration of AI into the dental curriculum should not only cover its technological aspects but also address ethical and professional challenges. Future research should explore how different cultural and economic factors shape dental students’ perspectives on AI and its role in dental education and practice.