Abstract
Background: Furcation involvement complicates the management of periodontitis and increases the risk of tooth loss. Conventional methods of detection, such as probing and two-dimensional radiographs, are limited by operator variability and anatomical complexity. Deep learning has shown a potential to detect furcation involvement on radiographic images. The aim of this review was to systematically evaluate the diagnostic potentials of deep learning models in detecting furcation involvement on radiographic images.
Methods: Systematic search was conducted in PubMed, EMBASE, CENTRAL, ClinicalTrials.gov and ProQuest for studies published from 2010 to September 2025. Two reviewers independently screened studies, extracted data, and assessed quality using QUADAS-2. Diagnostic metrics (sensitivity, specificity, F1-score, area under the curve (AUC)) were pooled using random-effects meta-analysis. Heterogeneity and publication bias were assessed via I2 statistics, meta-regression, and funnel plots.
Results: Eight studies, including 7814 radiographs of 12,373 molars (periapical, panoramic, cone-beam computed tomography), were analyzed. Deep learning models demonstrated high accuracy: sensitivity 0.93, specificity 0.94, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) 187, AUC 0.97 with mandibular molars reflecting higher accuracy (sensitivity 0.96, specificity 0.97, DOR 631, AUC 0.99). Fagan plot analysis indicated strong clinical utility. Meta-regression showed no significant effect of dataset type, augmentation, or number of annotators. No publication bias was detected.
Conclusion: Deep learning models show promising accuracy in detecting furcation involvement, particularly in mandibular molars, comparable to expert clinicians. Further refinement with larger, diverse datasets is needed to reduce false positives and enable safe clinical integration.