Artificial Intelligence

The UF College of Dentistry seeks to enhance its work using AI/ML approaches to improve patient outcomes and prognosis in patients with pre-malignant and malignant lesions in the oral cavity and jaws, and to use known risk factors and correlating appearance of intraoral lesions with genomic markers and histopathology.

The college will pursue the use of AI neural networks to identify patterns of gene expression associated with the development of oral diseases, such as periodontal diseases and head and neck cancers, and integrate them with other ‘omics’ data.

Pain is uniquely manifested and influenced by multiple biological and psychosocial factors. AI investigations can decode those biological and psychosocial interactions, resulting in methods for optimal pain treatment and personalized pain care. UFCD researchers are using multivariate machine learning methods and Gaussian process regression to understand the neurobiological contributors of pain in older adults.

Dentistry is part of an ongoing interdisciplinary program with the UF colleges of engineering, nursing, and public health and health professions using virtual patient simulation to strengthen interprofessional teams with solving health care disparity issues, particularly in emergency rooms where communication issues between different providers can affect patient care. The collaboration enables providers to address patients’ clinical needs comprehensively.