AUTHOR=Sadegh-Zadeh Seyed-Ali , Bagheri Mahshid , Saadat Mozafar 

TITLE=Decoding children dental health risks: a machine learning approach to identifying key influencing factors

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence

VOLUME=Volume 7 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/artificial-intelligence/articles/10.3389/frai.2024.1392597

DOI=10.3389/frai.2024.1392597

ISSN=2624-8212

ABSTRACT=Introduction/Objectives: This study investigates key factors influencing dental caries risk in children aged 7 and under using machine learning techniques. By addressing dental caries' prevalence, it aims to enhance early identification and preventative strategies for high-risk individuals.Methods: Data from clinical examinations of 356 children were analysed using Logistic Regression, Decision Trees, and Random Forests models. These models assessed the influence of dietary habits, fluoride exposure, and socio-economic status on caries risk, emphasizing accuracy, precision, recall, F1 score, and AUC metrics.Results: Poor oral hygiene, high sugary diet, and low fluoride exposure were identified as significant caries risk factors. The Random Forest model demonstrated superior performance, illustrating the potential of machine learning in complex health data analysis. Our SHAP analysis identified poor oral hygiene, high sugary diet, and low fluoride exposure as significant caries risk factors.Conclusions: Machine learning effectively identifies and quantifies dental caries risk factors in children. This approach supports targeted interventions and preventive measures, improving paediatric dental health outcomes.Clinical Significance: By leveraging machine learning to pinpoint crucial caries risk factors, this research lays the groundwork for data-driven preventive strategies, potentially reducing caries prevalence and promoting better dental health in children.