IDS 2011: digitale technieken steeds belangrijker

14 maart 2011 -  Op 22 maart 2011 start de IDS in Keulen.  Het hierna volgende bericht werd door de organisatoren vrijgegeven.

“It’s time to plan a joint visit to IDS in Cologne!”

Increasing significance of digital techniques – a focus on the importance of team work and the new opportunities that can only be fully exploited in partnership – a main theme of the IDS

The forthcoming International Dental Show (IDS) will reshape the world of dentistry. This applies to not only specific technical innovations but also to refinements of recognized methods. Such changes will also lead to new forms of cooperation between dentists and dental technicians. In order to learn more about such opportunities and how to make full use of them, both would be well advised to plan a joint visit to IDS in Cologne. When the International Dental Show opens its doors (22nd to 26th March 2011), both dentists and dental technicians will have the opportunity to find out about all the developments and how to benefit from them as a team.

To take just one example, the use of high-performance ceramics has become firmly established in the world of dentistry. Moreover, we are now witnessing the advent of new variants of this technology, which enable dentists to provide highly aesthetic effects and, for example, restoration of premolars and molars in natural colouring without the need for veneers. At present, however, this form of treatment still largely relies on the use of porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns and traditional casting methods, on the basis of techniques refined over a number of decades. All of these production methods remain valid options, even if their relative importance is shifting. Yet, at the same time, digitalisation is also changing the world of dentistry. The buzz words of this new era include 3D X-ray imaging, rapid prototyping and oral scanning. But what do these actually involve? Dentists and dental technicians must therefore now decide how exactly they wish to proceed and according to which methods.

Such considerations involve many questions. Digital impressions, for example, are certainly an option. But which is the most suitable method? For example, how complex must the clinical situation be in order for it to be appropriate to offer patients a functional and very aesthetic form of restoration? Alternatively are there cases in which the conventional method, involving the use of the latest impression material, offers the better option? And how should dentists and dental technicians work together to best plan for implant treatment? Wouldn’t they be well advised to seek advice directly from one of the specialist companies at IDS about the possibility of jointly attending an implantology course? And at what point should they consider involving a third member in their network — e.g., an external dental lab or an industrial service?

“In order to answer these and many other questions, each situation must be assessed by the team involved,” underlines Dr. Markus Heibach, Executive Director of the Association of German Dental Manufacturers (VDDI). “Following the highly positive reactions of recent years, it will be twice as pleasurable to talk with a double act of dentist and dental technician at the IDS stands. After all, two pairs of eyes see more than one, and the experts from the industry like to take on a challenge! In other words, dentists and dental technicians will be doing not only themselves but also each other a big favour by issuing the other a spontaneous invitation to IDS!”

IDS takes place in Cologne every two years and is organized by the GFDI Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Dental-Industrie mbH, the commercial enterprise of the Association of German Dental Manufacturers (VDDI) and staged by Koelnmesse GmbH, Cologne.