Artificial intelligence in diagnostic dentistry: technology and Islamic ethical compliance

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has advanced in dental diagnostics, improving accuracy, efficiency, and clinical decision-making through Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL). However, ethical concerns, particularly those from an Islamic perspective, remain inadequately explored. This narrative review aims to (1) summarise current applications of AI in dental diagnostic practice, (2) discuss ethical challenges of AI, and (3) evaluate these applications through an Islamic ethical point of view. A structured, non-systematic narrative was conducted using a two-stream literature search. The first stream identified peer-reviewed studies on AI applications in dental diagnostics. Meanwhile, the second stream explored Islamic ethics, bioethics, and jurisprudential sources relevant to healthcare technologies. Building on this, searches utilised predefined keywords, with inclusion restricted to English language full-text articles, primarily published between 2015 and 2025. Accordingly, titles, abstracts, and full-text availability were screened for relevance. While AI demonstrates high diagnostic performance in various dental fields, it faces ethical challenges related to data quantity, quality, bias, transparency, generalisability, and clinical integration. In line with this, Islamic ethical principles, particularly the purpose of Islamic law (Maqasid al-Shariah and Al-Masadir al-Aqliyya), can serve as the primary basis for AI applicability in dentistry. Integrating Islamic ethical values into AI-driven dental diagnostics promotes a human-centred, accountable, and ethically robust approach, ensuring technological rapid expansion aligns with patient safety, social justice, and moral respectability.