If you have had X-rays taken at Mint Hill Smiles recently, there is something happening with those images that most patients do not know about. Before your doctor ever sits down with you to review what they found, every set of X-rays we take runs through an artificial intelligence platform called Overjet.

We want to explain what that means for you and why we think it matters, because this is one of the areas where modern dental technology is quietly making your care better in a way that is easy to miss if no one tells you about it.

What Overjet actually does

Overjet is an FDA-cleared AI platform that was built specifically to analyze dental X-rays. It processes the images using machine learning models trained on millions of dental radiographs and produces an analysis that identifies potential areas of concern, measures bone levels at each tooth, and flags findings for the doctor to review.

When your hygienist takes your X-rays and uploads them to our system, Overjet analyzes them and marks areas that warrant clinical attention. By the time your doctor opens those images to review them with you, they are already annotated with the AI’s findings. The doctor reviews both the raw images and the AI analysis before discussing anything with you.

This is not replacing your doctor

We want to be clear about something because we think it is important. Overjet does not make clinical decisions and it does not replace the judgment of your doctor. What it does is provide an additional layer of analysis that runs alongside your doctor’s own review.

Think of it like having a second, highly trained set of eyes look at every image we take. Your doctor evaluates the X-rays with their clinical training and years of experience. Overjet evaluates the same images with a system trained on an enormous dataset, looking for patterns that can sometimes be subtle on visual inspection alone. When both reviews agree, your doctor has greater confidence in what they found. When Overjet flags something the doctor might have noted for monitoring, it creates an opportunity to look closer.

No diagnostic tool, human or AI, is perfect. The value of Overjet is not that it is infallible. It is that having two independent evaluations of every image reduces the chance that something small and important gets missed before it has time to grow into something larger and more costly.

What it finds and how it helps you

The two most common things Overjet is used for at Mint Hill Smiles are cavity detection and bone level measurement.

On the cavity side, Overjet can identify areas of potential decay that appear as subtle changes in the density of the tooth structure on the X-ray image. Small interproximal cavities, the ones that develop between teeth where a toothbrush cannot reach, are the type most likely to be caught at an early, easily treatable stage when the AI analysis is part of the review process.

On the bone level side, Overjet measures the height of the bone supporting each tooth and flags areas where bone loss is present or where the levels have changed compared to previous imaging. This is particularly relevant for monitoring gum disease over time. Rather than relying entirely on a visual estimate of bone height, your doctor has a consistent measurement from each set of X-rays that can be compared directly to prior visits.

What this looks like during your appointment

When your doctor reviews your X-rays with you, they will show you the images on screen. In many cases the Overjet annotations are visible on the screen, color-coded to indicate areas of interest and showing the bone level measurements at each tooth. We use this not just as a diagnostic tool but as a patient education tool. When you can see what we are seeing, a flagged area between two teeth or a measurement that has changed from last year, the treatment conversation is grounded in something concrete rather than abstract.

Patients who understand their own oral health make better decisions about their care. This is one of the ways we try to support that.

Why we invested in this

We are always thinking about what it means to show up for our patients with every tool available to us. The clinical work at Mint Hill Smiles is excellent because our doctors are trained, experienced, and attentive. Adding an AI layer to our X-ray review does not reflect a lack of confidence in our clinical team. It reflects our belief that when something is this important, more information is better than less.

Dental problems caught early are almost always smaller, less expensive, and less invasive to treat than the same problems caught a year or two later. Anything we can do to improve early detection is worth the investment.

If you would like to schedule an appointment at Mint Hill Smiles, call us at (704) 323-7577 or visit minthillsmiles.dentist. We are at 11300 Cresthill Drive, Suite 105, Mint Hill, NC 28227. We serve patients from Mint Hill, Matthews, Indian Trail, Stallings, Weddington, Midland, Albemarle, and southeast Charlotte, NC.