The recently held ADI Members' National Forum included a broad range of lectures on such topics as ‘design your own dental implant’, in-house printing of surgical guides, reasons for dental implant failure, the use of graphene in dentistry, peri-implantitis, full arch reconstruction and the role of hygienists in dental implantology.
Programme highlights
With 24 lectures in two streams, there were high quality talks throughout the day, with something for everyone in attendance.
Notable highlights during the morning included Eimear O’Connell’s presentation about the role of digital dentistry in making the immediate replacement of a tooth with a dental implant more predictable and less stressful.
Her lecture was immediately followed by an inspiring talk by Catherine Drysdale about the challenges involved in the oral rehabilitation of people with congenital orofacial deformity and acquired deformity in patients with cancer of the head and neck. She focused on the need to restore the patient’s sense of well-being and quality of life alongside oral rehabilitation and presented some fascinating video testimonials and individual patient treatment experiences.
After lunch, Avik Dandapat gave an informative lecture about the use of guided surgery and intraoral scanners and cone beam computed tomography. His presentation covered the various systems that are available and details about how to plan a case and design a surgical guide. He stated, “My session highlighted the pitfalls, the benefits and the disadvantages of guided dental implant surgery. It was most appropriate for clinicians with more experience in the field, as I hoped to help develop their understanding of what guided surgery can do and what its limitations are.”
Two further popular presentations were given by Ian Lane and Guy McLellan. Ian Lane discussed a retrospective study of 100 full arch immediate loaded dental implant cases to highlight the reasons for the high success rates and to acknowledge the types of errors and failures in order to promote further understanding. Guy McLellan introduced a new alternative technique, the Nazalus dental implant, for full arch rehabilitation in patients with more extreme atrophy of the maxillary arch, which involves angling of the distal dental implants. In his talk, he covered the procedure and illustrated it with clinical case reports.
Among the other presentations were interesting talks about the role of dental hygienists and the use of graphene. Emma Harney and Carly James spoke about the unexpected success of a 1:1 dentist to hygienist ratio for the care of patients who present with periodontitis, undergo dental implant treatment or develop peri-implant disease. Thiri Lwin explained the role of graphene in dentistry, particularly focusing on its antimicrobial mechanisms.
Michael Ainsworth, who talked about how to avoid the problems that can result from synthetic materials, commented on the day’s programme, “The ADI Members’ National Forum covered a good mix of topics and offered a good line-up of speakers once again this year, including both very well-known and less experienced professionals. I think this is important as it shows delegates what’s happening at the very cutting-edge of the field, as well as what can be achieved in the standard dental practice.”
The lectures were followed by exciting panel discussions. The ADI’s AGM was also held, in which the presidency was handed from Craig Parker to Abid Faqir.
Opportunities for learning
The opportunity to learn more continued in the exhibition, in which delegates could discover the latest in dental implant innovations. Delegates were able to watch demonstrations and to discuss innovative products and materials with the experts. Eimear O’Connell, who had presented earlier, added, “Events such as the ADI Members’ National Forum and the ADI Study Clubs provide a great platform for face-to-face learning. They facilitate networking with peers and allow professionals to seek support from those with more experience in the field.”