Role of Artificial Intelligence in Modern Dental Triage

Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the dental industry by improving diagnostic processes, helping with treatment planning, and increasing the efficiency of patient care through language and advanced image processing. However, the use of AI-powered chatbots in dental practice remains underexplored. This study assessed the potential of chatbots for initial dental symptom assessments and providing accurate triage information to patients. Methods: This cross-sectional study compared the accuracy of three AI systems (ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and a Custom chatbot) with those of 10 dentists for categorizing 100 AI-generated cases based on the American Dental Association guidelines into Emergency, Routine, Urgent, Non-Urgent. Interrater reliability and classification accuracy were analyzed statistically, and ethical standards were observed despite the use of simulated data. Results: ChatGPT achieved the highest accuracy (83%), followed by DeepSeek (82%) and custom chatbot (73%). All chatbots yielded a higher accuracy than the average human accuracy (66%). Conclusion: AI chatbot systems, particularly ChatGPT and DeepSeek, achieved high accuracy for dental triage and outperformed human evaluators. These findings provide valuable insights into the potential role of these systems in supporting clinical decision making in dental care.