According to the World Health Organization (WHO), oral health is a crucial gauge of an individual's overall health, well-being, and quality of life. This medical field comprehends an array of diseases and conditions: periodontal disease, dental caries and related infections, tooth loss, oral cancer, oral trauma, cleft lip and palate, among many others. Oral diseases affect 3.5 billion people worldwide, with caries being the most common noncommunicable worldwide and periodontal disease reported to affect up to 50% of the world population. Leading to tooth loss, these conditions compromise mastication, esthetics, self-confidence, quality of life and even professional and social success. Cancers of the lip and oral cavity are among the top 20 most common cancers worldwide, with nearly 180 000 deaths yearly. The close relationship between oral and general health has been well established and several diseases (diabetes, heart/kidney/liver-related conditions) are linked with the development and progression of unhealthy oral conditions.

Among all dentistry fields, it is clear and irrevocable that the most recent developments in dentistry – digital dentistry – may be the solution to improve prevention and potentiate treatment success, as well as grant the sustainability that dentistry seeks.

Digital Dentistry is here to stay in all fields of our profession; not only the reality of clinical practice is changing concerning technology, but research, scientific publications and education must accompany the evolution.

It is the opinion of the European Academy of Digital Dentistry (EADD) that with the advent of diagnostics, patient and case documentation, treatment planning and more recently throughout the workflow in oral rehabilitation, Digital Dentistry has the potential to be developed as an essential tool to improve the quality and efficiency of the daily performed treatments, the treatment experience for both the patient and the dentist, the time efficiency in terms of treatment planning and execution, the predictability of treatment outcomes, the sustainability of the profession, among several further advantages. However, as in many other fields where novelty is the norm, EADD (as well as the dental community and universities) feels that for an array of reasons, digital dentistry has been looked at from a commercial point of view that hinders the perception of this field and the growth of its full potential.

Digital is more than using CAD/CAM techniques or having technology. As the WHO aims to convey, it has become mandatory that digital is established as already present in all fields of dentistry and how crucial it has become to possess knowledge that may take the most important dentistry principles and integrate technology at their service in order to improve them while never forgetting that success remains in the basic procedures, gestures and techniques.

It is within this ideology that EADD, with the support of several European Universities and Dentistry Professors in its social bodies, is hosting a Summit focused on redesigning dentistry curriculum at the pre- and post-graduation levels, as well as defining the new profile for the dentistry student with clear indication of the essential competencies to acquire concerning the digitization era.

Representatives from European Universities and some outside Europe are invited to this closed Event for a fruitful outcome of discussion panels and brainstorming sessions on what to include in each dentistry subject, how to develop both the pre-clinical and clinical education processes, how to gather financing with the presence of representatives from public and private funding sources, what can be the industry part in all this with the attendance of the most significant companies in each field, among other topics.

The European Summit on Dental Education: Digitalization aims at counting on some of the highest-regarded references in each field to identify the most relevant questions and perform reviews about each topic, as well as their impact on education, ultimately leading to the emission of recommendations that shall be discussed live in the event, where interaction with all participants (invited University leaders, professors and references) shall shape a document per field of knowledge that will be made available in the form of scientific publications in a leading Scientific Journal and appointed to be followed by Universities across Europe (with a possible and logical worldwide extension) for the reshaping of Dental Education in the old continent.

In order to keep the meeting productive and allow for a focused discussion exempt from the usual dispersions, leading to a clear conclusion that suits the proposed document production, EADD created small workgroups of 3-5 people divided by dentistry field and composed of the colleagues that EADD deems as the most relevant individuals worldwide for the topic. Workgroups are as follows:

• Clinical, Laboratory & Translational Research
• Data management & applications (for universities)
• Endodontics
• Orthodontics
• Pediatric Dentistry & Prevention
• Periodontics, Pathology, Oral Surgery & Implantology
• Restorative Dentistry and Prosthodontics
• Student’s Perspective

The European Summit on Dental Education: Digitalization (ESDE) is positioned at the center of possibly the most crucial moment dentistry education has seen for technological progress, as it aims to lead development, mentality change and successful establishment of recommendations that allow education institutions to integrate technology and digitization in a sustainable and well-directed manner, without industry pressure, but rather the adequate knowledge support and guidance for education and research.

Attendance is by invitation only. Each European University is assigned an invitation to have one (1) delegate that may attend the entire event exempt from registration fees, thus ensuring the vital presence of all Universities and abiding by the non-profitable oriented EADD genesis and standards. Each University shall have the possibility of registering up to five other delegates through standard registration. Although the event is dedicated to Universities, EADD Members are exceedingly distinguished selected individuals whose competencies and advanced knowledge always present an invaluable contribution to any discussion or session and therefore they are also invited to register using their EADD privileged registration method.

Change will not come if we wait for others to act or some better time to advance. We are the ones we've been waiting for and need to catalyze the change we seek.

I would personally and institutionally like to thank you for taking the time and consideration to embark on this project with us. I hope to see you in March 2024.

Best regards,

Rui Falacho
President of the European Academy of Digital Dentistry

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