Dentsply Sirona Smart Integration Award

The topics ranged from voice control for future treatment centres, visualised therapy plans for enhanced patient communication and intraoral cameras with artificial intelligence to a fully networked dental practice with the treatment centre as the focal point. The 24 prizewinners of the inaugural Smart Integration Award by Dentsply Sirona, which focuses on the expertise of women in dentistry, impressed the jury with creative ideas and impressive success stories about efficient, convenient work processes at the treatment centres.

The entries from all over the world included image collages, presentations, photos and essays demonstrating innovative approaches to the optimally networked practice of tomorrow, while at the same time integrating patients in the best conceivable way. An international jury of experts, which included both members of the Dentsply Sirona management team and external experts, was responsible for evaluating the ideas and concepts.

Women are making their mark in the world's dental industry

The awards ceremony was staged at "level 12", the Heidelberg Print Media Academy's event location, with the gloriously picturesque view of Heidelberg Castle in the background. The prizewinners travelled from Germany, United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Norway, Finland and New Zealand.

In terms of product development, Dentsply Sirona focuses on the customers and has recognised the fact that more and more women are seeking to qualify as dentists. In many countries, over 50% of dental students are women. And the trend is growing. In order to develop solutions that are perfectly coordinated to meet the customer's requirements, Dentsply Sirona involves dentists in the development of new products relating to the treatment centre, right from the beginning.

"Women are making their mark in the world's dental industry. In order to develop products that are perfectly coordinated to the needs of all dentists, we want to integrate a broad range of expertise in our product development process, right from the start. We are very pleased to have been able to attract more dedicated dentists to our expert network, in the form of the participants," says Susanne Schmidinger, Vice President Global Brand Marketing and Clinical Affairs at Dentsply Sirona Equipment & Instruments. In this way, individual customer requests have already been implemented in the current product generation of the treatment centres Teneo, Sinius and Intego.

Dentsply Sirona's expert "Smart Integration Network" program specifically integrates the practical and therefore the expert knowledge of dentists, in order to develop innovative solutions. The members of the network of experts support Dentsply Sirona with their knowledge in an advisory capacity or through direct exchange. The main focus is on practical applications in the area of the intelligent, networked treatment centre as an essential component of smart, integrated practice workflows.