AI‐based evaluation of implant abutment screw torque decay: A periapical radiograph pilot study

Loosening of the tiny screws holding dental implants together is a common problem that can cause expensive repairs and hassle for patients. Currently, checking if these screws are loose requires dentists to physically tighten or loosen them, which is inconvenient and can weaken the screw over time. This study developed a new, non-invasive way to check screw tightness using standard dental x-ray pictures and artificial intelligence (AI). Researchers trained the AI system: first on detailed pictures of implant screws in a lab setting (pig ribs), and then fine-tuning it using real patient x-rays. When tested on a new set of 100 patient x-rays it had never seen before, the best AI tool (using a system called VGG16) correctly identified loose screws 88.0% of the time. This was much more accurate than experienced dentists looking at the same x-rays, who performed no better than random guessing (42.0%-52.0% accuracy). The AI reliably focused on the critical parts of the screw in the x-rays. This AI tool offers a promising way to easily monitor implant screw tightness during regular check-ups, helping dentists catch problems early before they cause bigger issues, potentially saving patients time, discomfort, and cost.