JPEG Compression Below Level 50 Degrades AI Performance on Dental Panoramic Radiographs

JPEG compression level ≥50 maintains AI output agreement for clinically important labels on panoramic radiographs; lower levels cause degradation, with periapical radiolucency positive agreement dropping to 0.614 at level 10, mainly due to missed findings.

• At compression levels 90 and 70, all labels had near-perfect agreement (κ≥0.920), and most file-size reduction (~90%) occurs at level 90.
• Low-contrast findings (periapical radiolucency, caries) were most affected; degradation occurred predominantly as missed findings rather than false positives.
• Results are specific to one commercial AI system and reflect output stability, not absolute diagnostic accuracy, and should not be generalized without validation.

Automated summary

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