This fast-emerging technology could transform our industry like nothing before. It’s incumbent on practitioners to make the most of it—and to do so responsibly.

By Rick Cohen and Chuck Cohen

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE can be unsettling. There are far more questions than answers about how the future will unfold. Just as TV executives of the 1950s couldn’t have envisioned streaming, it’s very difficult in these fast-moving early years of AI’s mainstream emergence to anticipate how it might upend the ways dentistry is currently practiced, taught, paid for, marketed and even perceived.

AI can also be exciting, hopeful and comforting. For example, doctors undoubtedly become wiser with age—but no matter how much we try, dexterity, eyesight and muscle health inevitably decline. That might no longer matter as much, thanks to tech pioneers like our cover star, Dr. Chris Ciriello, the Forsyth Award–winning founder and CEO of Perceptive.

Dr. Ciriello’s company is developing a dental robotics system that aims to complete restorative procedures faster and more accurately than any human (see page 38). People will still contribute the wisdom and guidance, but Perceptive’s robot will provide the dexterity. That means doctors could potentially practice for much longer, even with physical infirmities that would currently be career-ending. Has there ever been, in the entire history of dental health care, a better insurance policy?

Here, in our annual Year in Innovation issue, we take a deep dive into the many other ways AI could affect your practice and life, whether good, bad or uncertain (see page 18). Former Wall Street Journal reporter Jerry Markon covers all the angles, from the people and players to AI’s most promising applications and gray areas. We’ve also enlisted a small army of
experts of all stripes for insights and advice: influential practitioners, futurists, attorneys, corporate execs, technologists, venture capitalists and more.

Last year, we took you behind the scenes of the ADA’s integration with the Forsyth Institute. On page 54, we revisit what is perhaps dentistry’s last major powerhouse of basic research.

Want more valuable insights? Go beyond our print edition at incisaledgemagazine.com. Plus, check out benco.com/benco-dental-u for a huge selection of free articles and white papers to help you practice more profitably. Case in point: our shiny new white paper on Office Nucleus™, a groundbreaking practice design concept developed right here that reimagines sterilization and resupply protocols to save practices at least $64,000 and 2,560 hours annually.

Benco Dental has published Incisal Edge since 1997 and served oral health care since 1930. We’ve seen a lot of advances in that time, some of which have changed the game forever, from high-speed handpieces to digital dentistry. But none has offered as much potential for good as AI. It’s up to all of us to help steer it in the right directions and use it to drive dentis­try forward by leading with vigorous enthusiasm,
inspired curiosity—and a hefty dose of humanity.