Quality assurance in clinical dentistry and continuing professional development
Prof. Alphons Plasschaert
College of Dental Sciences, University Medical Centre, St. Radboud, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

In health care system in any country, more and more emphasis is placed on quality assurance issues. In the dental practice, this comprises primarily the content of clinical dentistry but also professional behaviour more in general like social and communication skills, practice management, teamwork, time management, etc. Several issues were addressed in the lecture. Some definitions were given regarding quality, quality management, accreditation, certification, etc. Some reflections were also given on the question as to who is responsible for quality assurance in the dental practice. Methods for quality measures were explained and examples were given. In these days, any dental practice should meet the standards according to the principles of evidence-based dentistry. What do we mean by this and how should we put this in practice? Principals of quality assurance are also at stake in relation to Continuing Personal Development (CPD). A system developed for the Dutch dental profession was described. The objective of the lecture was to give some insights in the challenges and opportunities in applying quality assurance, to give some tools and instructions on how to apply available systems and what we can learn from peers.

Prof. Bart Van Meerbeek

restoration of teeth offer a definite answer to the primary request of our patients. The concurrent potential to limit sacrifice of sound tooth tissue has triggered a rapid turnover from a ‘mechanical-oriented' to an ‘adhesive' and ‘minimal-invasive' tooth-care concept.  ‘How can I restore a decayed or fractured tooth least invasively?' should be the starting point of today's restorative dental practice. In need of tooth restoration, this question should each time again be addressed. The objective of the presentation was to illustrate this ‘minimal invasive' tooth-care concept with clinical examples, as well as to introduce the newest developments in glass-ionomer and adhesive technology required for it. The underlying mechanisms of adhesion of modern glass-ionomers and adhesives to enamel and dentin will be thoroughly discussed. Their effectiveness in laboratory will be correlated with clinical effectiveness data. The lecture was given from a sound critical standpoint  and encompassed a broad amount of product-and-use information with direct application in the daily practice.

Prof. TERRENCE J. GRIFFIN,
Department of Periodontology Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Biomechanical failure of dental implants: Aetiology, symptoms and influencing factor

Dr. Abdulhadi A. Abanmy
Chairman, Department

support restorations. Most of these failures can be prevented with proper patient selection and treatment planning. Implant failures can be largely classified into four main categories: 1) loss of integration, 2) positional failures, 3) soft tissue defects, and 4) biomechanical failures. Each of these were discussed with examples to illustrate the problem, more emphasis on the causes of biomechanical failures, in relation to poor prosthesis design and traumatic loading conditions, overloading, misfit of dental prosthesis, using short and narrow body implant. Early diagnosis of problems is critical and every effort should be made to treat the problem while the damage can still be managed or even reversed.

Dr. Adel Al-Hadlaq

This presentation represented an effort to update the dental community on the ever expanding field of tissue engineering and its implications in dentistry and orofacial reconstruction. The term "tissue engineering" was introduced to the general dental practitioner in a simplified manner. The core of the presentation focused on the accelerating scientific endeavors towards achieving a natural tooth implant utilizing the current concepts of tissue engineering. The use of different types of stem cells and the advantages and potentials of various experimental approaches were described. Moreover, additional recent advances in the orofacial applications of tissue engineering were highlighted.