Attitudes, perceptions, and ethical concerns of dental students toward artificial intelligence: a cross-sectional survey study

Abstract Background The aim of this study is to evaluate dental students’ knowledge, usage habits, attitudes, and ethical approaches toward artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, and to examine whether these approaches differ according to gender and stage of education (preclinical/clinical). Methods A total of 327 dental students completed an online questionnaire comprising, in addition to sociodemographic characteristics, four sections on knowledge of AI, patterns of use, clinical attitudes, and ethical perspectives. Categorical variables were compared using the Pearson chi-square test; where the expected cell frequency assumption was not met, p values were derived by Monte Carlo simulation. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Results Of the participants, 73.1% stated that AI could lead to significant advances in the fields of dentistry and medicine. Students reported that they acquired their knowledge of AI predominantly from social media and the internet (79.2%) and that they most frequently used ChatGPT (67.6%). The proportion of those who considered AI diagnosis to be as reliable as a dentist’s diagnosis remained at 13.1%. In comparisons by gender, concerns regarding personal privacy/data security, patient confidentiality, and the negative impact on the dentist-patient relationship were reported at higher rates among female students ( p = 0.004; p = 0.013; p = 0.002, respectively); opinions regarding the reliability of AI diagnosis also differed by gender ( p = 0.014). According to stage of education, significant differences were found in terms of the preferred source of trust in the case of a dentist–AI conflict (Monte Carlo p = 0.002), the inclusion of AI courses in the curriculum ( p = 0.004), and the necessity of informing patients ( p = 0.001). Conclusions Although dental students generally have a positive approach toward AI, they report various reservations in the areas of trust, privacy, and ethical responsibility. The findings suggest that integrating structured educational content on AI technologies and their ethical and clinical limitations into the dental curriculum may be beneficial.