Democratizing Oral Healthcare Through Video-Powered Vision Models
Engineered at Makerere University. UGDent is an enterprise-grade, mobile-first diagnostic infrastructure that abandons fragile static-image analysis in favor of real-time, video-embedded Large Vision Models to detect and localize dental diseases in low-resource clinical settings.
What is UGDent?
UGDent is a clinical decision-support API and mobile application designed for real-time intraoral screening. Unlike conventional AI models that require perfectly lit, high-resolution static photos, UGDent processes continuous video streams captured directly from standard smartphones. By utilizing a highly optimized, fine-tuned CLIP Vision Transformer (ViT) architecture deployed over a persistent WebSocket connection, the platform delivers sub-2-second diagnostic inference for conditions such as caries, gingivitis, calculus, and oral ulcers, regardless of camera shake or variable lighting.
Community Health Workers
Empowering frontline workers to perform accurate oral health screenings
Tele-Dentistry Platforms
Scalable, low-latency API for automated dental diagnostics
Dental Clinics
Real-time, explainable "second opinion" for routine examinations
Real-Time Video Processing
Continuous intraoral video stream analysis for robust diagnostics
CLIP Vision Transformer
Fine-tuned ViT architecture for semantic understanding
Sub-2 Second Inference
WebSocket-powered ultra-low-latency diagnostic delivery
Explainable AI
Attention maps highlighting exact disease localization
The Problem We Solve
Workforce Shortage
Uganda faces a crippling oral health workforce shortage, with approximately 1 dentist per 150,000 people, leaving rural populations without access to diagnostic expertise.
Static Image Failure
Imported AI solutions rely on perfectly lit, high-resolution static photos. In rural Ugandan clinics, they fail dramatically due to motion blur, saliva glare, and variable lighting.
Preventable Escalation
Preventable conditions like tooth decay and periodontal disease escalate into severe disability and economic hardship without early diagnostic expertise.
Our Strategic Market Opportunity
Uganda is uniquely positioned to leapfrog traditional diagnostic bottlenecks by leveraging the rapid penetration of mobile technology. As the burden of non-communicable oral diseases grows, we cannot wait decades to train enough dental surgeons to cover every district.
UGDent operationalizes the "Buy Uganda, Build Uganda" philosophy within health-tech. By engineering a frugal, video-capable Large Vision Model locally, we ensure that Ugandan health systems can deploy clinical-grade, context-aware screening tools without paying exorbitant licensing fees for opaque, imported medical software that fails in our operating environments.
Impact at a Glance
Founders & Strategic Leads
Kakuru Conrad Akankwasa
Co-Founder & Technical Lead - ML
Specializing in Large Vision Models, CLIP architectures, and real-time video inference. Leads the engineering of the UGDent diagnostic engine.
Tulinawe Ssebuhinja
Co-Founder & Lead Engineer - Deployment
Specializing in WebSocket architecture, FastAPI deployment, and React Native mobile development. Oversees clinical integration and MLOps.
Dr. Ggaliwango Marvin
Strategic Advisor & AI Mentor
Providing oversight on model optimization, research-to-product commercialization, and responsible AI governance in healthcare.
Ready to Transform Oral Healthcare?
Join us in democratizing dental diagnostics through video-powered AI.
Request API Access
Integrate the UGDent WebSocket API into your digital health platform or clinical workflow.
Get StartedPilot With Your Clinic
Participate in our phased pilot program and validate the platform in your practice.
Learn MorePartner as a Tele-Health Provider
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