We met again in person at Dental World 2021 in Budapest!

When we founded Dental World 21 years ago, we had no idea what the future of this profession would hold in these fast-paced times! We had hoped and trusted in continuous development, but we could not have imagined the technological changes that have since been brought about by, among other things, digitalisation and the wide range of computer applications.

The constant changes in the profession and the spread of upgrading knowledge have made it necessary to present these developments once a year, as far as we are able, at a large and well-organised exhibition and at the congresses held there. We have managed to do this for 19 years.

Unfortunately, the epidemiological situation caused by the Covid virus, which started in 2020 and became more and more serious, has changed all our lives and plans, and has also had a significant impact on the lives of those working in dentistry.
Last year, we were only able to hold our conferences in a virtual space, and for a long time it was not possible to organise exhibitions and professional meetings in person.

It was not possible to prepare this year’s programmes with certainty, but the evolution of the level of vaccination during the summer allowed us to start preparations for various events. We continued to organise Dental World with great enthusiasm, but we had to follow a different strategy, which had worked well for 20 years.

On 17 September 2021, the 21st Dental World opened its doors, and on the 18th, it welcomed all those interested in the profession!

Those who spent these two days with us have seen and experienced that change is not slowing down, all areas of the profession continue to evolve at a rapid pace, and business trends demand new strategies. That’s what our congresses are all about, and that’s what you saw at the exhibitors’ stands.

We succeeded in delivering our planned programmes, with a total of 57 presentations at the 2 day Aesthetics, Endodontics, Implantology and Orthodontics Congresses, and the one day Preventive and Dental Technician Congresses. We were particularly pleased to welcome several national speakers to our events this year, with lecturers from all 4 of our universities giving presentations on endodontics. The participants particularly appreciated the quality and novelty of the topics.

The Live Dental Show, which was held on both days, was attended with great interest, with the opportunity to follow the treatment of a patient in a glass-walled “spectacle”, live surgery, and to see new procedures from the repertoire of implantology, aesthetics and digital dentistry, in addition to routine surgical techniques.

There were also various workshops organised by companies, and on Day 0 there was also training for practice owners, focusing on the possibilities for running practices (such as “paperless practices”) and accounting. These topics attracted the interest of the participants for several days. A full-day surgical, practical course was held by Dr. Attila Bodrogi, which received a lot of very good feedback from the participants.

For the 20th anniversary year, last year, we planned to present the Lifetime Achievement Awards at the opening of the first day of the professional congresses. We were only able to hold this event this year, when the Congress Programme Officers presented the awards in 6 disciplines on behalf of the organisers and the profession:

Aesthetics – Prof. Dr. Pál Gerlóczy
Implantology – Prof. Dr. István Vajdovich
Orthodontics – Prof. dr. Rehák Gizella
Endodontics – Prof. dr. Árpád Fazekas
Prevention – Dr. Judit Szőke
Dental Technology – Lajos Németi

Despite a risky start and a relatively short preparation period, we think the 21st Dental World was a must! This was confirmed by the participants who said that they had missed the opportunity to meet face-to-face, to talk together about the profession, its present and possible ways forward.

The chairmen at Dental World congresses have praised the programmes, and here are a few thoughts from their comments:

Dr. Benyőcs Gergely

It was a pleasure for us to be together again in person and to talk about endodontics. We had excellent speakers from Hungary and abroad, with positive feedback from the audience.
We received a lot of useful information from both the scientific and the clinical side. At the end of the second day, a young colleague came up to me with sparkling eyes. She told me that she had not known what to choose, but after Dental World she had decided that she wanted to become an endodontist. It’s a beautiful and exciting field, you can save your own teeth. I feel I don’t need to say any more than that! It was a wonderful feeling!

Dr. Borbély Péter

The audience enjoyed our session, and many compliments were expressed on the preparation of the speakers. In particular, the German speakers, the Danish Professor and the Israeli presentations were appreciated and praised. We also received a surprising amount of information from a Kazakh orthodontist colleague. I, in agreement with the audience, would have particularly liked to have heard the presentations by Hanna Scheuer and Nezar Watted, despite the fact that they lasted much longer than the allotted time, yet they seemed short to everyone, they were very good presentations. The sound system and translation were excellent and there was no problem with the projection. We look forward to the next Dental World orthodontic conference.

Dr. Németh Zsolt

The organisation was as professional as ever, which is not new. The (inside and outside) renewed venue (although it was perfect on previous occasions) provided real top European conditions of high quality. The technical equipment was also perfect, this was the first year that all the performances and videos were up and running, the projector had the right colour and resolution, the lighting and ventilation were good. The interpreter (I listened in) could not have been better. The presentation of the lifetime achievement awards was a good idea, it surprised and moved us. This year’s DW was very different from previous ones. Participants, exhibitors and speakers were able to enjoy each other much more than before. Everybody appreciated the personal encounter. Despite last year’s successful digital DW, Colleagues were hungry for a face-to-face meeting. The feedback from exhibitors (who were also happy to be back) was that we were very lucky to have the opportunity to do this between 2 waves without restrictions. It was a bit like in the disaster movies, when the survivors emerge from the cave after the nuclear fallout, only this time it was not a destroyed world, but a living, evolving, happy, bustling, vibrant, colourful world, the world of DW, its real, familiar face. During the 2 days we heard many good presentations at our congress, and it was particularly pleasing that 4 of the 10 presentations were in Hungarian. It turned out what we already knew, that Hungarian speakers are not lagging behind their foreign colleagues, neither in terms of topic nor in the quality of presentation. This was confirmed by the interest of the participants, and large number of questions were asked. The exhibition hall was a lively and active place. For the first time this year, I was not so bothered by the fact that (e.g. the music during the live surgeries) intruded a bit into the speakers, I was really happy to see that there were many people, having a good time and that DW was like before!

Dr. Radánovics-Nagy Dániel

Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought difficulties for all of us, but organising a mass event is even more of a headache in this case. We have become accustomed to seeing renowned national and international speakers raising the professional level of the event, while we were able to ‘browse’ the exhibition space among the colourful stands of many manufacturers and distributors. As the theme chair of the Prevention Congress, I had the honour of presenting the Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr Judit Szőke, President of the Foundation for Healthy Teeth of Our Children, a national leader in dental prevention. I was particularly pleased that, following her online presentation last year, several others, including Dr Károly Bartha and Dr Péter Kivovics, accepted our invitation. It was an uplifting feeling to have clinical dental hygienists presenting in addition to medical colleagues, first of all Éva Székelyhidi. Dr. Károly Mensch, Dr. Kinga Bérczy, Dr. Edit Komarek, Dr. Ildikó Pinke, Dr. Tünde Tóth, Dr. Csaba Lászlófy, Dr. Tamás Demeter and Emese Mester enriched the series of presentations and without exception they almost ‘nailed the audience to their seats’. Perhaps the most important message of our conference. I think that this year’s Dental World was really what the profession needed like a loaf of bread; beyond the quality of the presentations, it was the magic of the personal encounter. Many thanks to the organisers for giving us this opportunity! “Life is not always easy, but when we overcome adversity we are stronger and more grateful for our opportunities.” (Nick Vujicic)

Dr. Volom András

It was an extremely good feeling to attend Dental World again. Nothing can replace the ‘buzz’ of attending in person. The preparatory work paid off again this time, with presentations on topical and forward-looking subjects. I was very impressed by the outstanding support of the speakers, their enthusiasm and their pleasure to come and share their experiences and thoughts.

Róth Lajos

This year, for the first time, Dental World hosted the annual Imre Földvári Congress, the traditional professional event for dental technicians in Hungary. The organizers thought that this traditional dental technician meeting could have a worthy place at Dental World, the largest dental event in the country and the region. At the beginning of the congress, after the traditional toasts, awards were presented to colleagues who have made a special contribution to the profession over the past decades. By the start of the first lecture, the auditorium was full to capacity and it was good to see different generations listening together to the excellent professional presentations. In addition to their dental technician colleagues, many students were also represented, following with great interest the presentations, which included state-of-the-art procedures. The organizers would like to create a tradition and organize the Imre Földvári Congress every year with such high quality, giving the whole Hungarian dental technician profession the opportunity to learn on a regular basis.

We received similar feedback from the audience, and here are two of them:

“I would particularly like to highlight the presentations of Attila Bodrogi and Marco Maiolino, because both of them show a comprehensive approach in their designs and in their work. The main message is: if you design something, you have to understand it! This can only be achieved through learning, training and constant re-evaluation of our own work.”

“It was great to see the joy on people’s faces in the exhibition hall, greeting old friends and exchanging conversations and ideas. It was so human, so touching… I look forward to Dental World 2022!”

The Dental World Gala Dinner on Friday evening was attended by a large number of industry representatives, invited speakers and exhibiting companies.

The evening was mainly music themed, with a variety of live music and dance to entertain the large audience. The final programme of the dinner was provided by the Rubor Labii orchestra, composed of Gergely Benyőcs Benyőcs and his fellow dentist musicians Levente Sidó, András Mócz and Csaba Siklósy.

During the evening, prestigious awards were presented to Attila Erdélyi from AlphaBio and Tamás Friss from Flexident in recognition of their support and sponsorship of Dental World over the past 10 years.

The 21st Dental World once again proved that we still need these three days of dentistry, as we originally intended, but unfortunately we were only able to organise 2 days! Despite the changed circumstances, this year’s event was once again a celebration of dentistry and the dental industry and trade that supports patient care!