🦷 Smarter Thinking, Not Just Faster Thinking in Dentistry AI at UF
- NewBits Media
- Aug 10
- 4 min read
Dentistry AI as a Catalyst for Critical Thinking in Dental Education
At the University of Florida College of Dentistry (UFCD), artificial intelligence isn’t replacing student thinking — it’s sharpening it.
Through her role as Instructional Designer III in the UFCD Office of Academic Affairs, Carrie Wells, Ed.D., is partnering with faculty to transform AI into an active learning partner. Her challenge: How can dentistry AI’s incredible capabilities be used to elevate students’ hands-on skills without weakening their critical thinking?
For a college training the next generation of health care providers, the stakes are far beyond academic — they’re about real patient care and outcomes.
📚 From Curriculum Vision to Classroom Reality
This work builds on UF’s bold AI Across the Curriculum initiative, designed to ensure that every undergraduate leaves campus with AI literacy — a modern workforce advantage the College of Dentistry is eager to harness.
UF’s $70 million partnership with NVIDIA positioned the university as “the nation’s first AI university,” powered by the cutting-edge HiPerGator supercomputer.
Already, UFCD’s collaboration with Overjet is proving the clinical power of dentistry AI. The FDA-cleared software detects cavities and measures bone loss in dental X-rays, using color-coded overlays to enhance grayscale radiographs. This allows dental students to move beyond basic pattern recognition toward diagnostic reasoning, treatment planning, and clear patient communication.
The message is clear: AI’s ability to simplify complex processes can improve both training efficiency and patient results.
🎯 When AI’s Job Is Not to Make Things Easier
In much of the Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD) curriculum, however, AI isn’t there to reduce effort. Wells is collaborating with course directors to do the opposite — to make learning deeper and more intellectually demanding.
“AI can play many roles,” Wells told faculty in a recent AI workshop co-led with Joseph Riley, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs.
She highlighted dentistry AI’s academic use cases:
As a tutor asking probing questions 🧠
As a designer for visual concepts 🎨
As a planner for course structure 📅
As an editor for communication ✏️
As an interviewer for reflection exercises 💬
Her personal favorite? A brainstorming partner — a tool that provokes curiosity and creativity rather than providing answers.
🔄 Reimagining Courses Through AI Integration
When faculty seek her guidance, Wells starts with a simple but revealing question:
“How are you currently engaging your students?”
She challenges educators to meet students where they are, recognizing that today’s learners may thrive with different teaching strategies than past generations.
“Certain courses will be re-envisioned to incorporate more AI,” Wells explained. “The course director will use it to develop activities, and students will use it to complete them — with guidance from our instructional design team.”
In practice, this means activities like AI-led debates, where students defend their positions while an AI-generated “opponent” pushes back with well-reasoned counterpoints, encouraging more rigorous analysis.
🤝 AI as a Thought Partner, Not a Shortcut
One standout example of Wells’ approach came in a fourth-year DMD Professionalism in Patient Care course.
Faculty noticed that some students treated their final ethics paper as little more than a graduation checkbox. The original assignment — reflecting on a clinical experience through the lens of ethical principles — left room for surface-level answers.
Wells worked with the course team to add an AI interviewer to the process. Before writing, students now face a series of targeted, follow-up questions about their decisions, values, and reasoning. The AI doesn’t write the essay — instead, it guides students toward deeper self-examination.
The result? A shift from perfunctory essays to meaningful, reflective work that reveals students’ growth as practitioners.
🌟 The Future: AI as an Intellectual Catalyst
For Wells, this is the ideal outcome: AI not as a crutch, but as a catalyst for critical thought. By encouraging deeper questions without providing the answers, dentistry AI can strengthen intellectual rigor and help produce dental professionals who are not only technically skilled but also ethically and analytically prepared for the realities of patient care.
As professional education continues to evolve, UFCD’s approach offers a glimpse of what’s possible when revolutionary technology meets intentional teaching design — a future where AI empowers learners to think smarter, not just faster.
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