Expert systems in dentistry

Introduction. Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an important factor in social, scientific, and economic development today. It has wide possibilities for application, including dentistry. Its history spans eight decades, and a special area of this research and development is expert systems (ES) related to dentistry. The goal is to analyze the state of development and application of ES in dentistry, and to propose the possibility of their application today. Methods. Using elements of systematic analysis, a representative sample of articles from Web of Science and Scopus references was selected (PubMed/MEDLINE databases), which were analyzed from the point of view of the time dimension of the development of AI and ES. Results. The paper is structured so as to provide answers to the following questions: what is AI and how was it developed, how did ES in dentistry come about and how did it develop, including in Serbia, what are the prospects for the application of AI/ES in dentistry, and what are possible future directions in this area? Conclusion. AI and ES in the field of dentistry are moving from an era of experimental research to the verge of becoming good clinical practice. Digitization and the Industry 4.0 model are current directions, already widespread, which represent strong support for the faster application of these models in dental practice.