AI-Enabled Dental Education for Oral Health Promotion: Assessment, Training, and Prevention

The intersection of artificial intelligence and dental education presents an emerging frontier for improving oral health outcomes through prevention-first, education-centered innovation. This Research Topic focuses on how AI can strengthen preventive dentistry by improving how we teach, learn, assess, and communicate—not on automating diagnosis or replacing clinical judgement. Despite oral diseases being among the most prevalent non-communicable diseases worldwide, many conditions remain largely preventable. Yet gaps in workforce training, patient education, and equitable access to preventive care continue to limit progress.Rapid advances in digital technologies—including generative AI, immersive simulation, and data-informed educational design—have accelerated research into AI-assisted learning and prevention-focused educational tools. Early evidence highlights meaningful promise alongside serious concerns about quality, bias, safety, academic integrity, and the validity of AI-mediated assessment. While reviews and comparative studies increasingly examine AI-supported learning and patient engagement tools, consensus remains limited regarding their effects on learning outcomes, behaviour change, preventive practices, and equity.Research to date suggests that AI-enabled education can support prevention on two connected levels: (1) building the capacity of dental professionals through adaptive learning, simulation, feedback, and reflective practice; and (2) supporting patients and communities through timely, tailored, culturally responsive prevention messaging and behaviour change support. However, important questions remain about assessment validity, misinformation risk, transparency, governance, and whether AI-supported education will help close—or inadvertently widen—existing oral health disparities. In parallel, debates continue on the reliability of AI-powered assessment and feedback, appropriate uses of large language models in learning and evaluation, and the need for accessibility-by-design and culturally safe educational approaches.This Research Topic provides a rigorous platform for advancing evidence-based, prevention-oriented uses of AI in dental education and oral health promotion. We aim to move beyond speculative potential toward empirical evaluation: assessing whether AI-supported educational and engagement interventions can demonstrably improve knowledge acquisition, clinical reasoning for prevention, communication skills, behaviour change, preventive care delivery, and equity—while meeting standards for safety, fairness, privacy, and sustainability. Submissions should make clear how AI functions as an educational or prevention-support tool, rather than a diagnostic automation system.The scope includes undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing dental education, as well as patient- and community-facing oral health initiatives. We welcome multidisciplinary submissions that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:• AI-supported assessment methods for knowledge, clinical reasoning, communication, and preventive care planning, including assurance of validity, fairness, and transparency• Adaptive and personalized learning platforms, case-based learning, and simulation for the dental workforce, including immersive and mixed-reality environments that build prevention competencies• AI literacy, ethical preparedness, and educator readiness, including academic integrity, trustworthy use policies, and faculty development for prevention-focused teaching• Patient and population-oriented prevention support, including chatbots, conversational agents, digital behaviour change tools, teledentistry for prevention and recall support, and technologies designed for older adults and underserved groups• Implementation science, governance, privacy, and equity-by-design, including reporting standards and evaluation frameworks for safe, scalable AI deployment in dental education and oral health promotion Topic editors: Sanjeev Balappa Khanagar, Mohit Kothari Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/78008/ai-enabled-dental-education-for-oral-health-promotion-assessment-training-and-prevention