• Knowledge Exchange
• Expressions Summer 2025

Smart Support for Senior Smiles

HKU Dentistry applies GUM AI technology to enhance elderly oral health

A trained volunteer uses the GUM AI tool to assess gum health.

A research team at the HKU Faculty of Dentistry has launched an elderly outreach project based on GUM AI—their new mobile health tool that harnesses artificial intelligence (AI) to rapidly assess gum health. Through onsite gum check-ups delivered directly in community spaces where seniors live and gather, the project aims to promote greater awareness of oral health and hygiene among Hong Kong’s underserved older population.

During 2025, the “Dental AI Community Care Project” is encouraging hundreds of local seniors to take charge of their oral health through smart AI technology and tailored advice. Trained volunteers first take a photograph of the participants’ front teeth and gums using a smartphone or tablet computer. Within just a few seconds, the GUM AI tool analyses the digital image and overlays colour-coded labels—green for healthy, yellow for caution, and red for poor gum condition. This easy-to-understand visual system enables the volunteers to deliver immediate assessment results, educate participants, and offer personalised oral hygiene instructions.

Central to the programme is the GUM AI tool’s ability to provide convenient, efficient, and early detection of gum inflammation. By enabling appropriate interventions or prompt referrals to dentists, the technology helps prevent progression to advanced gum disease, which may lower associated systemic health risks, such as cardiovascular and respiratory conditions.

Professor Walter Lam (second from right) hopes the GUM AI project will promote greater awareness of oral health and hygiene among Hong Kong’s underserved older population.

“GUM AI represents a breakthrough in preventive dental care,” said project team leader and principal investigator, Professor Walter Lam, Clinical Associate Professor in Prosthodontics. “Identifying signs of gum inflammation early lets us empower seniors and their caregivers with timely, actionable insight and information that can dramatically improve oral, and overall, health outcomes.”

The HKU team developed the GUM AI tool in 2021 in collaboration with Hong Kong Chu Hai College, the Guangdong University of Technology, and the National University of Malaysia. In a 2023 validation study published in the International Dental Journal, the researchers compared the tool’s analyses of oral images from more than 500 participants with analyses made by experienced dentists and found that the tool’s accuracy exceeded 90%, confirming the tool’s reliability. A pilot study published in 2025 also in the International Dental Journal demonstrated that immediately applying the AI tool to smartphone photographs taken during check-ups of older adults was both effective and positively received in community settings.

Dental AI Community Care Project encourages local seniors to take charge of their oral health through smart AI technology.

By regularly deploying the GUM AI mobile health technology in elderly centres and residential care homes, the Faculty’s Dental AI Community Care Project brings oral health screening and monitoring directly to seniors, many of whom face mobility limitations that make routine dental visits difficult. This free community-visit service streamlines oral assessments and consultations, reduces access barriers, and also tackles challenges such as patient costs and long public clinic wait times for check-ups. This service is especially vital in light of Hong Kong’s dental workforce shortage—with only 3.7 dentists per 10,000 residents—and a rapidly ageing population that is increasingly straining the public healthcare system.

Professor Lam highlighted the project’s strategic significance: “Our AI-based grassroots initiative, led primarily by non-dental volunteers, is pivotal in addressing the shortage in dental practitioners and improving care accessibility for our ageing residents. The project’s success relies on community cooperation, involving dental and medical professionals, legislative and district council representatives, non-governmental organisations, social workers, and dental students, so we sincerely thank all our partners and volunteers for helping to maximise the societal impact of our GUM AI tool.”

The team’s ultimate goal is to extend their AI-enabled outreach service to more seniors in more communities, across all 18 districts in Hong Kong.

GUM AI tool identifies signs of gum inflammation early.

Professor Lijian Jin hopes to extend the outreach service across all 18 districts in Hong Kong.