Automated Detection and Quantitative Assessment of Dental Plaque in Intraoral Images

Dental plaques are biofilms formed by microorganisms and extracellular matrix in the oral cavity. The most common oral diseases, including dental caries and periodontal diseases, are initiated by dental plaque accumulating on tooth surfaces. We develop an AI-based algorithm (AI-Plaque) to automatically segment dental plaque areas in intraoral images, enabling automatic plaque detection and quantitative severity assessment. To mitigate the limited segmentation capabilities of existing models and dataset limitations, we introduce a data preprocessing procedure, a specialized fine-tuning approach, and a novel self-training pipeline that leverages synthesized plaque images. Our approach demonstrates significant improvements in plaque segmentation and high effectiveness in plaque assessment, over several baseline methods, as evaluated by both image segmentation metrics and a custom-designed quantitative Visual Plaque Index. The AI-Plaque algorithm could empower individuals to receive timely, personalized feedback on their oral hygiene practices for dental plaque control, such as brushing and flossing, and ultimately reduce the risk of developing oral diseases.