{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,16]],"date-time":"2026-09-16T19:24:41Z","timestamp":1789586681824,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,17]],"date-time":"2026-04-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1776384000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100008323","name":"Zanjan University of Medical Sciences","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["N\/A"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["N\/A"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100008323","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["N\/A"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["N\/A"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01xf7jb19","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Early detection of dental caries in children is critical to prevent irreversible tooth damage and guarantee optimal oral health outcomes. However, interpreting pediatric panoramic radiographs throughout the mixed dentition stage remains a very challenging task due to overlap in anatomical structures and developmental variability. This complexity underscores the need for well curated, representative datasets that enable the development of reliable computer-aided diagnostic models. Herein, this study introduces the Mixed Dentition Orthopantomogram Dataset, a newly developed, publicly available dataset of children that was carefully labeled by dental specialists to identify proximal and occlusal caries regions in the range of 3\u201312 years. To evaluate the dataset\u2019s applicability for artificial intelligence research, we benchmarked it using both classification and segmentation models. A patch-based classifier achieved an average AUC of 0.89 and Recall 0.85 in distinguishing healthy and carious regions. For segmentation, we evaluated U-Net and Attention U-Net with multiple loss functions, and the Attention U-Net trained with Focal loss achieved the best Dice score of 0.94. Collectively, these findings support the dataset\u2019s utility for pediatric caries analysis and demonstrate the viability of deep learning approaches for mixed dentition panoramic imaging.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s26082481","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,17]],"date-time":"2026-04-17T14:24:51Z","timestamp":1776435891000},"page":"2481","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Detection of Pediatric Dental Caries in Panoramic Radiograph Using Deep Learning: A Benchmark Study on MD-OPG"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"26","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5502-3328","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hadi","family":"Rahimi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), Zanjan 45137-66731, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0007-7637-4243","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Seyed Mohammadrasoul","family":"Naeimi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Dentistry, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan 4513956184, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6709-1814","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Shayan","family":"Darvish","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Private Practice, Tucson, AZ 85741, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1545-6460","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bahareh","family":"Nazemi Salman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, School of Dentistry, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan 4513956184, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7031-4609","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Parvin","family":"Razzaghi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), Zanjan 45137-66731, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0017-9672","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ionut","family":"Luchian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 700115 Iasi, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2312-6987","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Dana Gabriela","family":"Budala","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 700115 Iasi, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"51","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(07)60031-2","article-title":"Dental caries","volume":"369","author":"Selwitz","year":"2007","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"499","DOI":"10.1159\/000261588","article-title":"Screening with conventional and digital bite-wing radiography compared to clinical examination alone for caries detection in low-risk children","volume":"27","author":"Hintze","year":"1993","journal-title":"Caries Res."},{"key":"ref_3","first-page":"99","article-title":"Caries diagnosis in mixed dentition among 6 to 12 years old children of Kedah using ICDAS-II method","volume":"8","author":"Ganapathy","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Adv. Med. Dent. Sci. 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