All the Straumann Group’s brands are driven by constant innovation and product excellence, with the patient’s needs, demands and wellbeing always being the guiding principle of the group’s daily efforts in more than hundred countries. Tailored and technically advanced training and education offerings have to meet the manifold needs of dental professionals around the world, and they play a key role in achieving cutting-edge oral care, and, as a result, in “Uniting Nations through Innovations”.

Dr. Felipucci, where are we in the evolution of oral care?

At Straumann Group, state-of-the-art oral care is more than the products and solutions provided – it is a vital part of the patient's overall health and wellbeing. This is why we are developing oral care by strongly focusing on the patient's needs. Together with our strategic partners, we aim to improve access to oral care for people all over the world, and we believe that fostering customer learning and education is crucial here. We are proud to report approximately 3.7 million patients treated around the world with our products – restoring their dental function, esthetics and enhancing their quality of life. Last year, we collected hundreds of patient testimonials. These touching stories illustrate just how much implant therapy has changed their lives. With this in mind, our goal is to impact 10 million smiles per year by 2030.To this end, in 2021 we offered thousands of educational activities to dental professionals in 2021, and 35% of these were in countries where access to quality dental treatment remains a challenge. And this access to treatment is further enabled by our global expansion: our solutions are now available in over 100 countries, and we serve customers in more than 40 countries directly via our subsidiaries. So, by training more and more dentists and making our leading-edge solutions available internationally, Straumann contributes to better access to oral care for patients and, in so doing, we fully commit ourselves to this year's EAO motto "Uniting Nations Through Innovations".

Who are your strategic partners helping you to achieve your long-term educational goals?

Education and enablement are a continuous journey, requiring flexible solutions. And the Straumann Group can not do it alone. Therefore, we maintain close and long-term collaborations with leading clinics, research institutes, universities, networks and communities to foster research and innovation. We are in constant exchange with about 500 clinical and scientific experts globally, disseminating the latest clinical and scientific evidence through a variety of in-person or online formats. By providing the most advanced treatment procedures, our “Centers of Dental Education” (CoDE) run by selected experts are the places where science meets practice in a real-world clinical environment, based on scientific evidence and cutting-edge technology. We also run our own training centers in China and Latin America (ILAPEO) and, last but not least, since 1980, we have been building a strong and fruitful alliance with our scientific partner, the International Team for Implantology foundation (ITI).

How do you meet the very high and diverse demands for education and training?

Indeed, we definitely need to analyze the specific needs of all our different target groups and support them with tailored educational offerings in their respective individual career moments. To this end, we are continuously working on the perfection of a variety of effective educational formats and networking programs that focus on specific needs, whether of beginners in implantology, general practitioners starting with immediate protocols, customers working in the field of periodontology, advanced and complex indications for specialists, career development for female dentists, the next generation of graduates, or others.

What is the role of new technologies in maintaining relationships and disseminating knowledge?

We have all experienced disruptions to our relationships as a result of physical distancing due to the pandemic, and technology has become crucial in maintaining and further developing these relationships. In the context of education, this new quality of interaction leads to better engagement in the classroom, and ultimately to better learning outcomes. Modern tools and platforms facilitate remote training and remote live participation, while assisted, augmented and virtual reality technology can give dentists greater confidence as they are able to continuously develop and shape their skills. Another of our priorities was to make these modules affordable, scalable and effective for dentists in acquiring new knowledge. We also started piloting a global mentorship program enhanced by assisted and virtual reality, and we are constantly nurturing our customers with webinars, virtual events, access to lectures on demand, but also with “snackable content” on our customer magazine youTooth.com with more than 500 easy-to-consume articles, including clinical reports and multimedia content. All these efforts meant that education did not have to be stopped during the restrictions of the pandemic. On the contrary, it allowed professionals to adapt to the challenging situation, to evolve, and participate in education without the need for travel, making hands-on courses more accessible for even more participants with the exclusive Learn in a Box^TM, especially in remote locations. And as we are a customer-centered company, now we too are evolving and continuously adapting to their new preferences for learning and keeping up-to-date.

What will be the focus during the EAO 2022?

As already stated above, the patients and their expectations and demands are our main referral points, because we believe that a patient-centric approach is key to achieving an outstanding treatment. This will be reflected in our corporate forum on Digital Immediacy (September 29 from 16:30 to 18:30). Particular attention will also be paid to digital planning and proper implementation of the treatment, followed by the selection of the most suitable components based on the patients' unique needs.