Tam Wah-Ching Professorship in Dental Science

For many of Hong Kong’s increasingly elderly population, maintaining good dental hygiene and getting access to a dentist can sometimes be difficult. And for those with underlying medical conditions, financial restrictions and other issues, obtaining these basic medical needs can be nearly impossible. But breakthroughs in oral health care and community medicine have allowed the elderly and most vulnerable in our society to have better access to such basic needs, allowing early preventive measures and treatments.

Professor Edward Lo Chin-Man is the Chair Professor of Dental Public Health at the Faculty of Dentistry at The University of Hong Kong (HKU). Professor Lo is an internationally recognised expert in dental public health, community dentistry and preventive dentistry. He is also a world leader in the development of a new approach and technique in minimally invasive dentistry, especially for use in outreach dental services.

Professor Lo’s interest is in oral epidemiology, oral health care delivery and preventive dentistry. He has carried out many oral epidemiological surveys on various population groups and has also conducted many laboratory and clinical studies on new preventive and treatment methods for dental caries, including those for use in field settings.

His research team has produced high-quality clinical evidence, through conducting randomised controlled trials, supporting the use a non-surgical (non-restorative) approach to manage the prevalent oral health problem of decayed teeth in young children and the elderly. Through the use of various fluoride agents, such as painting silver fluoride solution on decayed tooth surfaces, tooth decay can be stopped and the need for dental fillings can be avoided in many cases. This has proven to be useful for treating young children who are usually afraid of receiving dental treatment in clinics and can be unco-operative, and for older patients who may have many general health problems.

Professor Lo also contributes significantly to the development of an outreach dental service to elderly homes in Hong Kong. He established a dental care delivery model to provide essential preventive and basic curative services in long-term care institutions for the elderly in Hong Kong. This model has been adopted by outreach dental teams funded by the government and is currently serving all long-term care institutions for the elderly in Hong Kong, benefitting tens of thousands of people every year.

He obtained his academic and specialist training in Hong Kong, including his PhD degree from HKU in 1995, and was later awarded a Fellowship of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine. He was an Associate Professor at HKU (1998-2003), a Professor since 2003, and in 2012 was the first HKU BDS graduate of the Faculty to be conferred as Chair Professor. He was awarded the Outstanding Research Student Supervisor Award and the Outstanding Teaching Award in 2007 and 2012 respectively for his excellence in teaching. He is also a guest professor at a number of major dental schools in Mainland China. For his contributions to the field of community dentistry, Professor Lo was awarded the International Association of Dental Research (IADR) Distinguished Scientist Award in Geriatric Oral Research in 2016.

Professor Lo is the Chairman of the Specialty Board of Community Dentistry of the College of Dental Surgeons of Hong Kong (CDSHK). He was President of the CDSHK, President of the IADR Southeast Asian Division and that of the Asia-Pacific Region, and Treasurer of the IADR.

Professor Lo has published over 200 articles in internationally refereed Medline indexed journals, including the Journal of Dental Research. His articles have attracted more than 4,000 citations, garnering him an H-Index of over 35.