Dear colleagues,

The 2nd annual meeting of IADDM received a wonderful support from the Korean Academy of Digitalized Dentistry (KADD). The scientific program encompassed an exceptional number of renowned international speakers. The program was co-chaired by Jung-Suk Han as well as Young-Jun Lim and included keynote lectures covering various aspects related to digital dental medicine. Once again, the topics presented demonstrated how digital dental medicine is opening new doors that will change the way we used to treat our patients.

The first day of the meeting was dedicated to a number of corporates to facilitate introduction of new technologies. With 8 presenters, the corporate forum covered different topics related to the selection criteria of CAD/CAM equipments, intraoral scanners and digital implant dentistry. Further presentations covered topics related to CAD/CAM dentistry and occlusion, how to optimize the digital workflow in daily practice as well as the future of digital technologies in prosthodontics.

Following the corporate forum, 40 scientific posters were presented and individually discussed with the participants.

The second day of the scientific program was opened by a welcome speech of the Mayor of the dynamic City of Busan, Mr. Suh-Byung-soo as well as an address by Joerg Strub, president of the IADDM.

Details of the scientific program were introduced by Jung-Suk Han and Young-Jun Lim. Selim Pamuk and Onur Ozturk discussed in their presentation the integration of anatomic digital smile design into anterior esthetics. Obviously, an anatomic design improves communication with the patient and lab technician, thereby enhancing the overall treatment goal. Petra Gierthmühlen showed how the digital workflow can be utilized in complex rehabilitations. With a number of clinical examples, she showed how to use CAD/CAM technologies for securing predictable treatment outcomes in complex cases. Edmond Pow intensively discussed whether intraoral scanners are accurate enough for chairside use. With critical analysis of the current scientific evidence, he concluded that intraoral scanners are sufficiently accurate but still need improvement in the workflow. Jonathan Ferencz showed how his practice has been influenced throughout the years by the introduction of different digital technologies. He showed how the introduction of digital technologies as well as new materials are driving a progressive shift in the treatment concepts offered for patients.

The afternoon session started with Jun Hyouk Shin, who beautifully showed how he implements digital dentistry in an unusual way in his daily practice. With the title “Digital Art” and a number of beautiful clinical examples, he discussed how to use digital technologies as well as photography in an artistic way to attract more patients and improve overall patient understanding and acceptance of the suggested treatment. The result is highly esthetic and functional and guaranties that patients are extremely satisfied.

Takashi Miyazaki, discussed the challenges of dental education in the new era of dental service amid the advances of digital dentistry. It seems to be a global trend that new technologies and industry-driven innovations are often late introduced into education. He proposed in his presentation how to overcome this issue and keep the education following the highest level of cutting-edge technologies. Luc Rutten showed in a clinically-oriented presentation how digital technologies can be used to improve the synergy between the lab technician and the clinician in order to optimize the treatment outcome. He concluded that the main goal of digital technologies is not to improve accuracy, but to enhance communication. Byung Ho Choi discussed different methods available to implement digital flapless implant surgery. After discussing its advantages and disadvantages, he presented a number of guidelines for the use of predictable flapless surgery and avoiding surprises at the same time. Florin Cofar showed how different data obtained from various digital technologies can be used together to manage complex esthetic cases. His presentation clearly highlighted the advantages contemporary digital technologies and how they can help to reach perfectly-mastered esthetic and functional results.