A collaborative research team from the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS-QIBEBT), Qingdao Stomatological Hospital, and Qingdao Women and Children’s Hospital has made a discovery that could revolutionize the prevention of childhood tooth decay.

The team has developed the world’s first artificial intelligence (AI) system capable of predicting early childhood caries risk for individual teeth based on microbial characteristics, achieving an accuracy rate of more than 90%. The study is published in Cell Host & Microbe.

The research was led by Professor Shi Huang, Assistant Professor in Microbiology from the Division of Applied Oral Sciences and Community Dental Care at the HKU Faculty of Dentistry. The team also includes Yufeng Zhang, a Ph.D. student from the same faculty, Professor Jian Xu from CAS-QIBEBT, Dr. Fei Teng from Qingdao Stomatological Hospital, and Dr. Fang Yang from Qingdao Women and Children’s Hospital.