Interview: “Holding ConsEuro in London was a little bit of a risk”

Dental Tribune: Prof. Dunne, the ConsEuro conference in London seems to have been excellently organised. Would you say that the event has met your expectations?
Prof. Stephen Dunne: To be honest, holding ConsEuro in London was a little bit of a risk because with all the other conferences to be going on this year in the capital and other parts of Britain there could be an overload. We actually spent months discussing a window in which we would attract the highest number of delegates.

With 500 and growing so far, the congress has clearly exceeded our expectations and, while previous congresses in Italy or Turkey might have had a bigger turnout, the conference here has attracted delegates from 29 countries, including from Australia, the US and the Middle East. It is probably one of the most multinational conferences we have ever had.

You were originally planning for 350–450 participants. Can the outcome mainly be attributed to the London factor?
While we chose one of the best conference centres in the world with the Queen Elizabeth II Centre right in the heart of London, it is fair to say that we also chose one of the most expensive ones. This made us very concerned when we planning this three years ago because at that time we were in an economic downturn. Trying to request sponsorship from companies was difficult back then. They were all downsizing and did not have any money to spare for conferences.

Owing to the economic situation gradually improving over time, we exceeded our expectations with regard to sponsorships. We actually sold out the exhibition space several months ago. That has been very successful and helped us to cover the costs. We came above break-even on the first day, so I am much more relaxed today than I was yesterday morning. And it looks as though we might make a reasonable profit, which would then be shared between the EFCD and King’s College London.

King’s recently made it on to the list of the top ten best dental schools globally. How much do you think the school’s reputation contributed to the congress outcome?
There are a number of dental schools surveys and rankings worldwide. Despite different methodologies and different variables, King’s usually comes out very near the top, which I am very pleased about. The school attracts not only good teachers and researchers, but also equally good clinicians from across the world.

When I first joined the EFCD about ten years ago, there was very much an effort to compete with the International Association for Dental Research, so it was very focused on academics and researchers from the universities. My view is that this was a mistake, as we really need to provide a conference that has interest across the board, so it must have academic content of excellence to attract researchers and teachers, as well as clinical content suitable for clinicians to provide evidence-based knowledge for the work that they do.

Therefore, for every session that we have this year here at ConsEuro 2015, we have an evidence-based start, followed by clinical applications and hands-on sessions after lunch-time that help practitioners get to grips with equipment they heard about and want to have a chance to play with. That is very attractive to clinicians and you can see a great deal of interest there.

The programme for ConsEuro 2015 is very focused on technology issues. Would you confirm this to be the overall theme of this conference?
From the beginning, we planned this to be a very high-tech conference. In society and certainly in dentistry, medicine or surgery, technology is becoming increasingly important. And while air turbines and scalpels are still staples of the trade, there is a huge amount of technological equipment coming on to the market for operative work, dental surgery, logistics and communication.

Our belief is that dentists need to know about all of these things, as well as to have an understanding of the evidence base. Should they be using these things and, if they are using them, which particular model? This was very much the rational when we were planning the programme. We also ought to have a paperless conference. Our website and app have been very effective and when I read statements yesterday on our Twitter feed, participants commented that this was the most technologically advanced conference they have ever been too.

Technology has clearly expanded the scope of this conference. Does this also apply to clinical practice?
Almost every dental practice across the world now employs some form of technology, be it electronic patient records, stock-taking or equipment, such as lasers, CAD/CAM and digital imaging to show patients areas of the tooth they could not possibly see otherwise. Digital imaging and photography are also very important from a medical and legal point of view, as this area is increasingly becoming a concern.

Where do you see the trends with regard to dental materials?
The materials that we use now were not available to me when I was in training and in my early practice and the stages or requirements for their use are infinitely more sophisticated. Nowadays, you might have 10 stages to a bonding procedure and every one of those stages is critical. If you fail in only one of them, your restoration fails before it has even started.

Historically, dentists have been trained by representatives of the companies who make the materials and that means they may not get the most honest or scientifically valid perspective. Although we very much support manufacturers contributing to education programmes, we certainly like clinicians and scientists to be involved in those to provide the evidence base. This is exactly what we are doing here now.

What other lessons will you take home from the conference?
Our conference proves that you can take a high-tech approach and still hopefully be profitable or at least break even. Technology is definitely here to stay; we just need to look at the evidence base. We also need to have training in the use of technology and need to look at clinicians and scientists to guide us in the selection of the particular devices that we should use.

Thank you very much for the interview.