Category: Thoughts & Reflections

AI and Deep Machine Learning in Orthodontics: Evidence-As-We-Go!

~ Shadi Samawi ~ 1 Comment

It has been a while since I last posted a blog post here on The Orthodontic Notefile, due to many time constraints and responsibilities since the early days of COVID-19. But now, I’d like to start putting out my thoughts again, whenever I can, as the world of Orthodontics has changed considerably since the start of the COVID pandemic, and I’m starting with a post about Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The most promising avenue for the profession is to continue to develop augmented intelligence where the power of AI is harnessed by the orthodontist to the benefit of the patient.

Prof. Jean-Marc Retrouvey

I’ve recently had the honor and pleasure to have been invited to speak at The First India-International Orthodontic Symposium (IIOS 2023), in beautifully-located Coorg Institute of Dental Sciences, India, on the topic of Artificial Intelligence and its revolutionary evolution in recent years, and the role it’s playing now – and will be playing in the future – in orthodontic diagnosis and treatment planning. This event was jointly organized by the Coorg Institute of Dental Sciences, The Indian Orthodontic Society and the Eurasian Association of Orthodontists.

In this post, I’d like to share several general points about AI and orthodontics, and also try to pin down my current thoughts on this rapidly-developing subject, and in particular as it may come to relate to Evidence-based Dentistry as we know it!.. so let’s begin.

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Are We Adapting Technology to Treatment, or Treatment to Technology?

~ Shadi Samawi ~ Leave a comment

Sometimes technology is a better way to do the wrong thing. Be careful!

Dr. Bill Arnett | FABKnoweldge

With the recent growth and explosion of important technologies in 3D printing and scanning, we are also seeing a concomitant quantitative “explosion” of cases – mostly shared through social media – that are being treated through adapting these technologies to the manufacturing of customized appliances. This is an excellent and most welcome advancement for sure, yet it does seem – at least to me and a number of like-minded colleagues – that we are going through a period of initial hyper-excitement over the capabilities we have at hand at the moment, and that many seem to be using them practically on every patient they treat, simply because they can! The above quote from Dr. Bill Arnett is a real philosophical eye opener. Although he is an avid user of new technologies in the field of Orthodontics, he is very much aware of the potential pitfalls.

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Notes on: “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”; by Thomas S. Kuhn

~ Shadi Samawi ~ Leave a comment
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Thomas S. Kuhn. (50th Anniversary Edition)

Scientific theories don’t change because old scientists change their minds; they change because old scientists die. ~ Max Plank

In 1962, Thomas Kuhn, Historian of Science, published his seminal work: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (The University of Chicago Press). In this book, Kuhn challenged long-standing linear notions of scientific progress, arguing that transformative ideas don’t arise from the day-to-day, gradual process of experimentation and data accumulation but that the revolutions in science – those breakthrough moments that disrupt accepted thinking and offer unanticipated ideas – actually occur outside of “normal science,” as he called it. Normal Science , as Kuhn defines it, means research firmly based upon one or more past  scientific achievements, achievements that some particular scientific community  acknowledges for a time as supplying the foundation for its further practice.

Though Kuhn was writing when physics ruled the sciences, his ideas on how scientific revolutions bring order to the anomalies that amass over time in research experiments are still instructive in our biotech age.

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Diagnostics-Driven Orthodontics: The Real Driver for Progress

~ Shadi Samawi ~ 9 Comments

There is nothing so useless as doing, efficiently, that which should not be done at all.

Peter Drucker

The concept that mere technological innovation in a certain field can drive rapid progress within that field is not a new concept; and this has certainly been accepted as “the norm” in this era of rapid – or shall I say rabid – pace of technological innovation in both the medical and dental field in general, and Orthodontics in particular.

That’s all well and good, and is much appreciated and needed, of course. However, it seems that – despite all the advances in dental technology over the past decade or so – many practitioners seem to be suffering from what we can only term: Diagnostic Paralysis. This lack of diagnostic skills in this era of rapid technological advancement is alarming!

Let’s have a closer look at this in this blog post.

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DPC 2019: dentist.camera – An International Dental Photography Event Worth Attending

~ Shadi Samawi ~ 1 Comment

I learn by going where I have to go.

Theodore Roethke

I just recently came back from a trip to Seville, Spain where I had the pleasure of attending the first International dental Photography Conference of its kind; DPC 2019: dentist.camera, Organized mainly by Dr Alessandro Devigus from Switzerland, along with a host of the best dental photography experts and speakers in the world of dentistry today, and it was an event worth attending by all measures.

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Enlightenment In Orthodontics : Entropy, Evolution & Information

~ Shadi Samawi ~ 5 Comments

WARNING: This Blog Post Will Make You THINK!

We start the new year with a mind-provoking, philosophical Guest Blog post by Prof. Dr Anmol Kalha, Professor Emeritus, Distinguished Professor and Advisor / CIDS, Associate Director & Advisor / Max Health Care, and Chief Architect and Cofounder of Smart Health.ai. He is also widely known among his contemporaries as The Orthodontic Philosopher. 

“Dare to understand : one age cannot conclude a pact that would prevent succeeding ages from extending their insights, increasing their knowledge and purging their errors.” ~ Immanuel Kant

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The Rise of the “Misguided” Online Consultation: Patient Expectations vs. Reality

~ Shadi Samawi ~ 1 Comment

“Blindness and Error can change a life as surely as Judgement and Reason can.”  ~ M. Morris

As social media and the internet in general take hold of almost every aspect of our lives, with their apparent ease of access and speed of response, we tend to infer that we can really do EVERYTHING in the virtual world. This notion has clearly spread throughout all fields of industry, marketing and certainly impacting the field of health services in general. In this blog post I’d like to discuss the downsides of people’s misguided perceptions that online medical/dental consultations are a viable and reliable form of enquiry into their health issues.

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A Tribute to “Prof”..

~ Shadi Samawi ~ Leave a comment

“No people have been honored for what they recieved. Honor has been the reward for what they gave.” ~ President Calvin Coolidge

The orthodontic community recently lost one of its absolute Greats; the late Prof. William Proffit, the man who – arguably – had the most influence on the orthodontic profession in the past 60 years or so. His landmark textbook Contemporary Orthodontics can be considered THE Bible of Orthodontics all over the world.

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