Rate My Professor Simon Guan

Associate Professor Simon Guan, also known as Guangzhao Guan, serves as an Oral Medicine Specialist in the Department of Oral Diagnostic and Surgical Sciences within the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Otago. He earned his Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS), Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB), and Doctor of Clinical Dentistry (DClinDent) in Oral Medicine from the University of Otago, completing the latter in 2012. A Fellow of the Overseas Membership of the Australian Academy of Dental Surgery (FOMAA), he is a registered specialist in Oral Medicine in New Zealand. Promoted to Associate Professor effective 1 February 2026, Guan acts as a clinical supervisor for postgraduate Doctor of Clinical Dentistry (DClinDent) programs and undergraduate Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) clinics. He coordinates courses such as DENT362 Biomedical Sciences 2 and supervises PhD students in oral diagnostic sciences.

Guan's research centers on oral mucosal diseases, orofacial pain, and oral cancer, emphasizing the development of prognostic and predictive molecular markers for disease severity, prognosis, and therapy. His special interests encompass oral diseases with systemic complications and systemic diseases with oral manifestations. Notable contributions include leading a pioneering study on atomic force microscopy combined with artificial intelligence for early oral cancer detection by analyzing nanoscale cell surface changes, published as 'Atomic Force Microscopy for Revealing Oncological Nanomechanobiology and Thermodynamics' in ACS Nano (2025). Key publications also feature 'Tongue brushing and oral probiotics for the treatment of halitosis: A randomized controlled trial' (Journal of Breath Research, 2026), 'Measuring dry mouth in older people in residential care' (Gerodontology, 2025), 'Interprofessional communication between general dental practitioners and general medical practitioners: a qualitative study' (2024), 'Three-Dimensional Stereophotogrammetry Facial Morphologic Signatures of Temporomandibular Disorders' (2025), and 'Oral medicine services: a two-centre study of 99,603 patients between 2015 and 2020' (2022). With 743 citations from 67 publications, his interdisciplinary work advances clinical practices in halitosis, xerostomia, temporomandibular disorders, burning mouth syndrome, and interprofessional education in dentistry.