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Congratulations to Dr Boey Sean Kuan for winning second prize in the first-ever European Federation of Periodontology (EFP) Innovation Award for Digital Solutions for Gum Health

Dr Boey Sean Kuan was awarded the second prize in the first-ever EFP Innovation Award for Digital Solutions for Gum Health. Her winning project, "The Dental Tracker, a mobile application for the patient, dentist and periodontal researchers", allows everyone to use fuss-free intra-oral scans to monitor their dental health via their smartphones. Once captured, a fully automated Artificial Intelligence (AI) workflow with precise algorithms will review the scans and derive a diagnosis of periodontal diseases before suggesting possible interventions. This concept can essentially shift and balance the autonomy of one's dental health from the dentist to the individual.

"The scanned images get uploaded and analysed via AI to trigger an automated notification to the user, informing them on their gum health and oral hygiene status. Depending on the review, notifications can range from "keep up the good work" to "seek urgent care", allowing for quick and easy assessment and action", shared Dr Boey.

Dr Boey (third from left) received the award at the EuroPerio10 congress held in Copenhagen in June 2022.

The second-year postgraduate student conceived "The Dental Tracker" as a spin-off of her Master's thesis project entitled "The Effect of An Artificial Intelligence Mobile Dental Application in the Promotion of Self-Administered Plaque Control: A Randomised Controlled Trial", undertaken with Associate Professor Fu Jia Hui.

"With COVID-19, the restrictions and universal fear of exposure to the virus has led to avoidance of seeking medical and dental care. The 'Dental Tracker' idea was inspired to help bridge this gap by empowering patients to monitor their dental health status easily while advising them on actions to take, be it seeking treatment, self-intervention or monitoring," Dr Boey added.

Dr Boey shared that she was grateful for the support offered by Associate Professors Fu Jia Hui and Alphonsus Tay, which gave her the needed boost in seeing the project through. Dr Boey hopes to be able to secure additional resources and partners to push the project beyond its infancy.