“We had a great time with friends and colleagues”, “Thanks for the awesome and inspiring experiences”, “One of the best days of my life” and “I always love coming back here” – that’s just a small taste of the overwhelmingly positive feedback received from the 40 dentists who participated in the four-day “International Fellowship Symposium” at VOCO headquarters in Cuxhaven, Germany. Some of them had also willingly undertaken a very long journey in order to attend. After all, it’s not every day that dentists from Europe, North America, South America, Asia and even Australia come together to host presentations, exchange experiences with colleagues and simply chat in person with the “Dentalists” at VOCO.
The first item on the agenda on the first of the four days of the event was a particular highlight. After a brief welcoming introduction from managing director Olaf Sauerbier, Prof. Dr Richard Price took to the stage. The Canadian dentist heads up the “Dental Clinical Sciences” and “Biomedical Engineering” departments at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In his laboratory at the university, he studies the longevity of composite restorations in the posterior region, the light intensity of dental curing lights and the advantages of rapid light curing over slow light curing for dental restorations. He presented some of his findings and experiences to the symposium participants in his talk “The Value of a Good Curing Light”.
A broad spectrum of interesting topics
The guest speakers then took to the stage one after the other, changing every quarter of an hour. They presented a broad spectrum of interesting topics including talks such as “Aesthetic Properties of Admira Fusion”, “Composite Workflow in Routine Practice”, “Fissure Sealing”, “The Use of Bundled Glass-Fibre-Reinforced Root Posts” and “Silicone Materials for Occlusal Registrations”. Those who weren’t on stage presenting eagerly held up their smartphones and cameras to record the information for future reference.
And the foreign dentists weren’t the only ones to give presentations: VOCO’s own Head of Research and Development, Prof. Dr. Reinhard Maletz, also stepped up to the mic to share with the guests the latest results in composite research for CAD/CAM technology with the Grandio blocs. The colleagues chatted with interest about the innovative, new development and a whole range of other dental topics not only after the respective talks, but during the breaks as well.
Following the intensive event days with their wealth of presentations, the dentists rounded off their visit to Germany with a trip to the city of Hamburg.