The FGDP biennial conference in the Waterfront Belfast 26thOctober 2018 was opened by Ian Mills FGDP dean who highlighted the role of faculty in setting standards, bringing like-minded people together and how the examination was an integral communal milestone for many career pathways in dentistry.
Prof Chappell began the educational journey day with a comprehensive overview on the treatment of periodontal disease. He highlighted the relationship between periodontal disease and systemic diseases especially diabetes and coronary heart disease showing infographic videos of how bacteraemia occurs and progresses His impressive portfolio of treated cases were both interesting and inspiring, and showcased that with excellent periodontal therapy and maintenance, combined with patient compliance, we can treat even quite advanced cases of periodontal disease.
The latter part of his lecture was focused on the treatment of peri-implantitis, with implants becoming a major part of general practice dentistry this was particularly relevant His use of cutting edge techniques to treat implants with advanced bone loss both underlined the need for excellent implant placement and maintenance, as well as the possibilities for future rehabilitation of failing implants.
With the course title being to remove or improve Ian certainly gave a good case for keeping the teeth that are there have for as long as possible.
After a break for lunch during which the sponsors had a significant opportunity to interact with delegates, Alyn continued the theme of “improve” rather than “remove” with his overview of the most up to date techniques in the field of endodontics. Particularly fascinating was his use of CT scanning for endodontic retreatments. The delegates were shown the variation in shape and number of canals in especially lower incisor teeth. Aside from highlighting state of the art techniques, useful tips for everyday dentistry were in abundance, with a focus on canal location, access for adequate irrigation and assessing restorability. Alyn finished with a look forward at adaptive file systems which may provide a glimpse of future endodontic techniques.
Hannah O Loane and Catherine Walls gave a short presentation on the structure of the study club inviting interested delegates who had not yet sat their FGDP examination to join them for education and peer mentoring.
Subir Bannerjee works in as a restorative consultant, as well as maintaining a busy private practice. His motto though-out the lecture was “always improve!”. Using composite, as well as ceramics in more advanced cases of wear, he showed the delegates some very inspiring aesthetic and functional outcomes. Through his work in his practice, he has been able to track how his treatments perform over eight to ten years, and showed photographs to the delegates which underlined that, if provided correctly, adhesive dentistry works!
David Murnaghan FGDP-NI director closed the conference thanking all board members in particular Ross Livingstone for their input to the event.
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