Guest Speaker
Lakshman P. Samaranayake
Prof. em., DSc (hon), DDS (Glas), FDSRCS (Edin), FRCPath, FRACDS, FDSRCPS (Glas), FHKCPath, FCDSHK
Immediate Past Dean of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong; High Potential Professor (Second Century Fund), Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
HONG KONG
Session 1 · DAY 1 (Nov. 5, 2026) · 10:00–10:30 CET
Dentistry at the Algorithmic Frontier: Promise, Peril, and Possibility
Abstract
Artificial intelligence is poised to transform dentistry, from diagnosis and treatment planning to digital workflows, patient communication, education, and practice management. This presentation explores the promise of AI in enhancing accuracy, efficiency, personalisation, and access to oral healthcare, while also examining the perils of bias, data quality, privacy, accountability, and overreliance on technology.
Beyond immediate applications, AI offers the possibility of predictive, preventive, and population-based oral care. The central challenge is to ensure that AI augments rather than replaces professional judgement, keeping future dentistry ethical, evidence-based, equitable, and firmly human-centred.
Learning Objectives
- Identify key applications of artificial intelligence in contemporary dentistry, including diagnosis, treatment planning, digital workflows, patient communication, education, and practice management.
- Evaluate the potential benefits and limitations of AI in dental practice, with particular attention to accuracy, bias, data quality, privacy, accountability, and the risk of overreliance on technology.
- Discuss how AI can be responsibly integrated into future dental care to support predictive, preventive, and personalised approaches while preserving professional judgement, ethical standards, equity, and human-centred care.
Biography
Professor Emeritus Lakshman Samaranayake is a clinical academic and microbiologist with over four decades of leadership in dental education and research. A former Executive Dean of the Dental Faculties at both the University of Hong Kong and the University of Queensland, he guided HKU Dentistry to become the world’s top-ranked dental school (QS/THE, 2014-2016).
He is the author of more than 400 publications (H-index 101, over 34,000 citations) and ranks among the top microbiology scholars in China. His textbook Essential Microbiology for Dentistry is used worldwide, and he has received numerous international honours for his contributions to the oral sciences.