Artificial Intelligence in Dental Biomaterials and Clinical Dentistry: Current Applications, Challenges and Future Directions

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly transforming dentistry through applications in diagnosis, treatment planning, digital workflows and dental biomaterials. The present narrative review critically examines AI methods and applications across major dental specialties, biomaterials and digital fabrication, with emphasis on current evidence, clinical readiness, limitations and future directions. Diagnostic imaging, segmentation and workflow support tools represent the most mature applications, whereas predictive models and AI driven biomaterials development remain less clinically established. In biomaterials, AI shows promise for material discovery, property prediction, manufacturing optimisation and patient-specific design. However, limited and heterogeneous datasets, insufficient external validation, interpretability, interoperability, privacy and regulatory challenges continue to restrict clinical translation. AI should therefore complement rather than replace professional expertise, with broader adoption requiring representative data, robust clinical validation, transparent models and appropriate regulatory oversight.