Week 8: A Toothrific New Dataset

Hello everyone, and welcome to Week 8 of my Senior Project! This week, I worked on designing my patient dataset so let’s get into the categories and steps! 

As I mentioned last week, after talking with Dr. Kalai, I added two more categories to my dataset: Intra-oral and Extra-oral Exam. Essentially, an intra-oral exam is anything that could be noted on the patient’s mouth, such as their bite (whether they have an overbite or underbite) or missing teeth. An extra-oral exam is anything worth noting outside of their oral hygiene, such as facial symmetry or lymph node palpitations. 

Since the intra-oral exam category requires more in-depth details on the patient’s health, I split this up into four categories: 

Visual Exam includes details on the patient’s teeth, such as if they have a cavity or an over/underbite. This includes anything a doctor can see with the naked eye or with an X-ray scan. The Gum Health column includes information on each patient’s gum history, such as gingivitis or periodontitis. Soft Tissues includes information on the patient’s lips, tongue, cheeks, throat, and the roof of their mouth. Some examples of the notes in this column are oral ulcers and Leukoplakia. Dental Charting includes any notes about the condition of each patient’s teeth and gums and whether they are currently or planning to undergo treatment.

Next, I included the Extra-oral exam category which includes any dentist’s observations about the structure of the patient’s mouth/face that are worth noting. This can include whether the patient is pregnant or has oral lesions. The main difference between intra and extra-oral examinations is that the former includes any observations on the patient’s mouth while the latter includes any abnormalities on their facial nerve assessment (including their necks, ears, and collarbone). 

With these categories, I created a dataset with 40 patients and have begun training my model using an 80-20 split. Here is an overview of what my dataset looks like:

I don’t plan on using some of the classifying information such as the patient’s name or contact number as they do not change the outcome. Additionally, using these categories would affect the integrity of the chatbot as I want to ensure the patient’s privacy is protected. 

Next week, I will report back on the accuracy of my model and whether it can read and understand my dataset successfully. Thank you all for reading, and please let me know if you have any questions!

Citations

Al-Helou, Noor. “The Extra Oral and Intra Oral Examination.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 21 May 2021, www.nature.com/articles/s41407-021-0622-z.