So what does the Missing Link AI program search for? It looks for cysts, impacted teeth, bone loss around implants and issues in the apical area of treated and untreated teeth and for artefacts indicating something that may have been left in the bone after surgery. Missing Link is not a diagnostic tool or a medical device at this point, but it is a very effective screening tool that can very quickly and accurately analyse a panoramic radiograph and give a detailed and easy-to-understand report highlighting where there are evident issues in the bone (reduced Hounsfield units) in the regions described. The report is so easy to read that even the patient will understand, and it can also help the patient, via a geolocation service, to connect with nearby dentists, radiologists, hospitals or clinics to obtain a CBCT scan. It is important to understand that only a clinician can actually deliver the final diagnosis after CBCT evidence and clinical observation and, if the diagnosis is positive, provide the necessary treatment to eliminate all sources of bone infection and inflammation.
This will have immediate effects on the patient’s systemic health by reducing the cytokines produced by infection and inflammation, improving the patient’s systemic well-being. The clinical evidence on this is strong. There are so many studies coming out about the direct correlation between non-communicable diseases and oral inflammation or infection, so addressing the latter will have a direct impact on the problem.
Missing Link has been developed to be deployed by doctors, physicians, cancer experts, hospitals and insurance companies. With patients’ consent, they can scan their panoramic radiographs and help patients to obtain the dental treatment they need in order to reduce systemic inflammation. Unlike other AI programs in the dental arena, Missing Link does not look at teeth, and it does not look for tooth decay or any of the other problems that most AI technologies do. This is a very targeted program. Uniquely, it enables a doctor, usually unaware of the dental world, to prescribe a test to determine whether the patient has cytokine-producing inflammation in the jaw. Until now, there has been no way other than verbal communication for doctors to know whether their patients have any oral pathologies. Any general medical practitioner can ask for a cardiologist to check a patient’s heart and can expect an electrocardiogram at a minimum and the resulting medical report, and the same goes for investigating any other organ in the body: some form of image will be generated and a report from the specialist will be sent to the general practitioner to provide some answers. But how does a doctor ask a dentist for a report if dentists are only looking at teeth and not at these specific issues and if they lack the right tools or education? We believe that there is a major blind spot here in healthcare. That is why Missing Link aims to connect doctors to dentists and offers a tool for the medical community to understand a little better what we are doing.
Naturally, dentists can also use this software, and it is very easy to use. It employs advanced anonymising technology, so if the panoramic radiograph has any information on it, it will automatically offer to anonymise it for data protection. Another plus is that it does not ask for any information other than an e-mail address to ensure that it knows where to send the report to. There is no mining of any data whatsoever, which is something that I understand is a concern to many people.
The engineers on the team are currently developing the capacity to perform screening and diagnostics on CBCT scans and are also developing the capacity to screen full-mouth radiographs, which is the preferred diagnostic method in the US.
Cancer is on the rise: around 18 million cases of cancer were diagnosed globally in 2020, according to World Cancer Research Fund International. Roughly 4% of the world population has some type of autoimmune disease, the National Stem Cell Foundation has reported—that is 320 million people! We all know somebody with an autoimmune disease and sadly many with cancer. It is a battle for these people, and we owe it to them to provide more answers. I believe that bridging the divide between doctors and dentists through technology is the only way to do this, and it has to be simple, easy and highly focused, and that is exactly what this AI program is. If you know anybody suffering from an autoimmune disease or cancer, ask them for a panoramic radiograph, upload it to the platform and see how the report generated could initiate a very good discussion and perhaps the beginning of a journey back to total body health.
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