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The WCOI 6 Consensus Development Conference (CDC) will impact the future of implant dentistry and recommend appropriate and adequate standards of care to guide clinicians, academicians, and researchers, and offer preferred choices. Participate in this world gathering and influence solutions to the problems that keep you up at night. The proceedings and resulting resolutions will impact how you make decisions each day to positively affect the patients you care for. This is your opportunity to express your opinions on how implant dentistry is incorporated into a busy practice, where and when it is taught, credentialing processes, and the further research we need. You will be able to discuss these issues with experts from all over the world. World class scientists, clinicians, and educators will focus on resolution of the current controversies identified in conflicting publications and product claims and discuss their vision of implant dentistry in more than 500 presentations during this three-four day event. Distinguished panelists will evaluate the varied approaches suggested for resolution of controversies in several important areas. Following this conference you will be able to return to your practice with a much clearer vision of the solutions for the many decisions related to patient treatment, curricula and research that may have kept you awake at night.
Several aspects of current patient treatment related to dental implants are controversial. A study of technology adoption life cycles indicates that controversies are part of the normal process of therapeutic evolution, as ideas, technology, and treatment protocols mature. Concern arises when purported benefits are so compelling that large numbers of practitioners undertake procedures for which there is too little agreement regarding what are the preferred methods and materials to utilize.
To help ensure safety and efficacy, the concept of the CDC was extended to implant dentistry. For example in 1978 and 1988, under the auspices of the United States National Institutes of Health, two CDC's related to dental implants were conducted to assess the safety and efficacy of several dental implant modalities. A third example, focused on subantral augmentation, was sponsored in the United States by the Academy of Osseointegration in 1996. At each CDC, sponsors and panelists acknowledged the dearth of classic prospective, controlled, randomized, longitudinal, independent clinical trials. The preponderance of data on the clinical use of dental implants has been derived from serial and retrospective studies, encumbered by their variables.
WCOI 6 is expected to resolve differences related to diagnosis and treatment planning, several aspects of grafting and pharmacotherapeutics, failing implants and reversible complications, methods of enhancing long-term survival, immediate function of dental implants, genomic testing, prosthodontic optimization, the educational and credentialing roles of specialists and the role of the general practitioner.
The WCOI 6 CDC will bring the world of implant dentistry together to create a clearer vision for our future. WCOI 6?to rest easy!
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