JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Instructional and clinical technologies have been transforming dental education. With the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), the opportunities of utilizing AI in education has increased. With the recent advancement of generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs) and foundation models (FM) gained attention with their capabilities in natural language understanding and generation as well as combining multiple types of data, such as text, images, and audio. A common example has been ChatGPT, which is based on a powerful LLM, generative pretrained transformer (GPT) model. This article discusses the potential benefits and challenges of incorporating LLMs in dental education, focusing on periodontal charting with a use case to outline capabilities of LLMs. LLMs can provide personalized feedback, generate case scenarios, and create educational content to contribute to the quality of dental education. However, challenges, limitations and risks exist, including bias and inaccuracy in the content created, privacy and security concerns, and the risk of overreliance. With the guidance and oversight, and by effectively and ethically integrating LLMs, dental education can incorporate engaging and personalized learning experiences for students towards readiness for real-life clinical practice.