With more than 10,000 unique registrations, the online edition of Nobel Biocare Global Symposium brought by Envista was not only an extraordinary educational event but also an example of how remote teams can quickly adapt to unprecedented circumstances.
“I was looking forward to meeting our participants in person in Las Vegas, however, when the circumstances changed for all of us, it was more important than ever to turn obstacles into opportunities. I am incredibly grateful to our speakers, and impressed by our team who quickly transformed this year’s symposium into our most successful ever online event”, says Patrik Eriksson, President, Nobel Biocare Systems.
With several health services and dental clinics around the globe reducing their patient flow or shutting down temporarily, it was clear for the Symposium organizers at Nobel Biocare that this was an opportunity to deliver first-class implant treatment educational content for the dental community.
Nobel Biocare has a long tradition of helping dental professionals’ continuous growth. Progressive educational courses and events at any stage of the implantology journey, from being a beginner to an expert, are provided through various learning platforms around the world. Courses are delivered by industry-leading experts, covering everything from diagnosis, treatment planning, and surgical and prosthetic processes.
In the scope of the currently required shift to online education Dr. Alessandro Pozzi explained, “This digital experience proves that implantology professionals are extremely keen to learn. Maybe we should see it as an advantage that they have time to attend educational webinars when normally they would be inundated by patient appointments.” Pozzi, a specialist trainer in digital dentistry solutions, continued, “In my own sessions, hundreds of clinicians have been building their skills in the DTX Studio suite implant and prosthetic software, and increasing their confidence in its daily use. These are valuable tools for clinicians and hygienists at every level, to treat more patients better.”
Looking to the future of dental education after the COVID-19 pandemic, speaker Sascha Jovanovic, who was one of the first to provide web-based dental training programs back in 2003, commented: “It is a very tough time, but we will get out of it, and hopefully the world will be a better place. Looking at online education and training, a lot of us will reevaluate it. We are going to test how much of the training and education, and the transfer of research, will be possible online. I think it’s going to go far. I do webinars, and we have an online education library and use it constantly for our students. I think our world will be different, our training and education will be different and meetings between doctors will be different.”
The previous Global Symposium was held last summer in Madrid, with more than 1,000 participants. For the 2020 virtual edition, the program was shortened and included seven live sessions and several on-demand webinars* over two science-focus days. Participants had the opportunity to raise questions and further discuss with experts several topics including guided and navigated treatment planning, implant treatment success in the esthetic area, soft tissue grafting, and management of treatment complications. Thanks to the on-demand viewing, more dental professionals and associates can benefit from these learnings.
As Irin Maier, Director Clinical Affairs & Education, at Nobel Biocare explained; “Our mission is to advance side-by-side with dental professionals. Their interest and their active participation, excellent feedback on clinical and product topics, show that there is growing interest to advance in the implant treatment journey, with better patient outcomes. The interactive comments and remarks we have received will guide us in our efforts to continuous improvement, science-based innovations and first-class educational tools.”
