Machine Learning For Detection an Classification of Oral Potentially Malignant Disorders: A Conceptual Review.

Oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs) represent precursor lesions that may undergo malignant transformation to oral cancer. There are many known risk factors associated with the development of OPMDs, and contribute to the risk of malignant transformation. Although many advances have been reported to understand the biological behaviour of OPMDs, their clinical features that indicate the characteristics of malignant transformation are not well established. Early diagnosis of malignancy is the most important factor to improve patients' prognosis. The integration of Machine Learning (ML) into routine diagnosis has recently emerged as an adjunct to aid clinical examination. Increased performances of artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted medical devices are claimed to exceed the human capability in the clinical detection of early cancer. Therefore, the aim of this narrative review is to introduce AI terminology, concepts and models currently used in Oncology to familiarize oral medicine scientists with the language skills, best research practices, and knowledge for developing ML models applied to the clinical detection of OPMDs.