Eggmann F, Weiger R, Zitzmann N U, Blatz M B. Implications of large language models such as ChatGPT for dental medicine. J Esthet Restor Dent 2023; DOI: 10.1111/jerd.13046. Online ahead of print.

While LLMs such as ChatGPT may have various useful applications in dental medicine, they come with risks of malicious use and serious limitations, including the potential for misinformation.

ChatGPT, a large language model (LLM) trained on massive amounts of textual data, is adept at fulfilling various language-related tasks. Despite its impressive capabilities, ChatGPT has serious limitations, such as occasionally giving incorrect answers, producing nonsensical content, and presenting misinformation as fact. Dental practitioners, assistants, and hygienists are not likely to be significantly impacted by LLMs. However, LLMs could affect the work of administrative personnel and the provision of dental telemedicine. LLMs offer potential for clinical decision support, text summarisation, efficient writing, and multilingual communication. As more people seek health information from LLMs, it is crucial to safeguard against inaccurate, outdated, and biased responses to health-related queries.