ADC2025’s Main Scientific Program promises ample learning opportunities

Encompassing both single-speaker presentations and symposiums where some of the great global minds of dentistry will address a key topic together, the MSP offers a diverse and enriching range of learning opportunities over three highly informative days.

To whet your learning appetite for what lies in ahead in May next year in Perth, here are five topics that feature in the MSP for the Australian Dental Congress 2025 (ADC2025).

1. Emulating nature’s morphology: approaching the anterior direct resin case (Restorative)

SPEAKER
Dr Jason Smithson (UK)

SYNOPSIS
Direct resin can produce functional, highly aesthetic long-lasting restorations, which are conservative of tooth structure. However, with the rise of aesthetic dentistry in the media, the public as consumers are becoming increasingly discerning: they expect and demand the best. Learn key concepts such as shade selection and micro- and macro-anatomy and pull them together into a simple step-by-step protocol which includes treatment planning, diagnostics, preparation, composite placement, and finishing, allowing you to achieve outstanding results on a consistent basis.

- Shade selection: demystify the science and use it as a practical everyday tool.

- Translucency, opacity, and opalescence: why all composite resin is not created equal.

- Two different concepts to make incisal edge shade and effects obvious and effortless.

- How to quickly and inexpensively fabricate diagnostic mock-ups and palatal silicone indices to achieve precise incisal edge position and restore worn palatal surfaces.

- Simple, intuitive finishing protocols, to produce highly, polished restorations, which mimic natural enamel.

- How to layer resin to create lifelike incisal halos and effects such as crack lines and opacities.

2. Intraoral digital scans: parameters to improve accuracy (AI & digital dentistry)

SPEAKER
Dr Marta Revilla-León (USA)

SYNOPSIS
Digital dentistry is not intraoral scanners, 3D printers, or CAD programs – these are just tools. The quest is more about how to create digital workflows to be efficient and reliable, and less about reshaping conventional procedures with digital tools. This presentation will review the factors influencing intraoral data acquisition methods and digital implant scans, from operator factors to the patient factors and literature that support them.

- Identify the main data acquisition methods and the factors that can influence its accuracy for Intraoral Digital Scans.

- Operator and patient factors influencing intraoral data acquisition methods.

- Review of digital implant scan methods.

- Distinguish what works and what does not work for Intraoral Digital Scan integration.

3. External invasive resorption – dilemmas in diagnosis, treatment and prognosis (Endodontics)

SPEAKER
Emeritus Professor Paul Abbott (Australia)

SYNOPSIS
External invasive resorption is one of the eight types of external resorption of teeth. In the past, it was not often diagnosed, but in recent years it has become much more common for dentists to diagnose this resorption. However, it is still a condition that is poorly understood, largely because we do not know why it occurs in most cases. Some teeth may have some possible or potential predisposing factors, but these are largely circumstantial and only based on the patient’s history rather than on research findings. Another major problem is the differential diagnosis of this type of resorption – many cases are initially diagnosed as internal resorption or caries. 

Hence, if an external invasive resorptive defect is treated as internal resorption or caries, the dentist will be surprised to find that the tissue inside the defect is quite different to what was expected – especially because of the profuse bleeding that usually occurs. External invasive resorption can be predictably managed in its early stages but as it progresses to involve more of the tooth structure, the predictably of treatment decreases and the complexity of treatment increases. Very advanced defects are often best left ‘as is’ with simple radiographic monitoring. This lecture will provide an outline of the pathogenesis (as we currently understand), the diagnostic features (including its classification), a general treatment regime, and recommendations for management of the four different classes of this resorption. The outcomes of these management protocols will also be discussed.

4. Dental fitness for medical treatment: Focusing on the work-up (not the work-out)

SPEAKER
Dr Jee-Yun Leung (Australia)

SYNOPSIS
A patient walks into your dental clinic with a letter from their medical specialist asking you to clear them as “dentally fit” for a medical procedure. What does it mean to be “dentally fit”, and does it vary depending on the nature of the medical procedure? How do you weigh up the urgency of the medical procedure, how much treatment to perform, and the risks of performing dental treatment? For how far forward do we need to future-proof? This lecture will discuss the different factors that need to be considered to render a patient fit to proceed with bone modifying drugs, cardiac surgery, transplant and head & neck radiotherapy.

- The rationale for requiring dental assessment prior to proceeding with bone modifying drugs, cardiac surgery, transplant and head & neck radiotherapy.

- The medical, dental and social considerations that need to be balanced when determining what dental treatment is required prior to commencing each of the above medical treatments

- How optimal time frames for dental treatment may vary

- How treatment approaches may range between aggressive and conservative

5. Maxillary expansion and sleep disordered breathing – opportunities for misrepresentation (Orthodontics)

SPEAKER
Dr Mithran Goonewardene

SYNOPSIS
Sleep disordered breathing in the growing child is a significant problem in the community with numerous clinicians across disciplines recommending treatment approaches. Orthodontists and general dentists appear to be increasingly involved in management of these children with combinations of expansion and mandibular repositioning devices. Dr Goonewardene will discuss the complex issues related to diagnosis and management of sleep disordered breathing in children with special emphasis on the efficacy of new approaches to maxillary expansion.

After this lecture attendees will appreciate:

- the short-term and long-term effects of maxillary expansion.

- the limitations of maxillary expansion as a panacea for sleep disordered breathing.

- the pitfalls of suggesting maxillary expansion.

- the impact of including temporary anchors on the long-term stability of maxillary expansion.