East Meets West in the Middle - an MIS Scientific Conference in Tel-Aviv

June, 2019

MIS was truly excited, for the very first time, to organize a world-class scientific conference right in its very own back yard! The West-East conference, which took place in Tel Aviv on June 20th & 21st, was a middle ground for our distinguished lecturers from both Europe and Japan, who met on the same stage at the Hilton Hotel, situated on the gorgeous Mediterranean shoreline.

 

 

 

 

We caught up with Dr. Bernard Dahan, who was the inspiration for this conference, following his visits to Japan during his long career as a periodontist and close cooperation with his Japanese colleagues there. In a whirlwind of emotion and excitement, Dr. Dahan started off the day, saying “We worked so hard. This great conference is about to begin, let’s enjoy it!”

 

On the stage, was a quartet of drummers in traditional clothing, playing beautiful Japanese Taiko drums. The powerful music mesmerized the audience, and set the tone for the day’s lectures and topics. Namely, finding harmony in very different, culturally-influenced esthetic ideals and techniques. Elad Ginat, MIS VP of Marketing and Products, officially opened the conference, welcoming the 500 plus participants, and sharing some personal stories of his experience as part of the warm MIS family and the close relationships among the different global partners.

 

With the theme of harmony in mind, Dr. Dahan opened the first lecture session, introducing the line-up and giving some background about the cultures represented. Following Dr. Dahan, Dr. Iñaki Gamborena of Spain, who lectured about immediate placement procedures and the importance of planning ahead, began with a very bold statement by saying that “the more I know about dental implants, the more I want to keep the natural tooth”.  He spoke about “2 big miracles”, which to him were tooth extraction and implant stability, and showed some very impressive clinical cases to support his claims.

 

Up next was Dr. Masana Suzuki, from Tokyo, who gave a lecture on “Tissue management around implants as a must”, discussing various approaches, specifically microscopic approaches and his belief and experience in the fact that these provide better results.

 

Dr. Bernard Dahan with Dr. Masana Suzuki and Dr. Masayuki Okawa from Japan

 

During the first coffee break of the day, we talked with some of the guests. Like Dr. Bajram Selimaj from Kosovo, who had been using MIS products in his clinic for the last five years. Dr. Selimaj had already visited Tel Aviv as a tourist, but returned for the conference because of his interest in meeting some colleagues who work with MIS, as well as hearing from the key opinion leaders who have vast clinical experience using the products.

 

Continuing on, Dr. Eric Van Dooren, one of the co-creators of the innovative MIS V3 implant, and a key-opinion leader who has years of experience with MIS implants and lectures in many events across the globe, showed an impressive line-up of clinical cases and discussed the importance of planning ahead. Dr. Van Dooren works almost exclusively with digital planning and surgical techniques, and relies on these to “know what the result will be”. 

 

As the last lecture of the morning session, Dr. Masayuki Okawa, of Tokyo, lectured on minimally invasive surgery, which according to him, requires a very high level of accuracy and therefore, is greatly benefited by microscopy. According to Dr. Okawa, adapting digital dentistry with a microscopic workflow combines a digital and traditional approach, and ultimately leads to better results.

 

While our guests enjoyed the next break, we got to chat with a couple of young dentists from Stockholm, Sweden about their experience in Tel Aviv. Doctors Mahfuz Akher and Marcus Kallstrom both enjoyed their visit to MIS HQ. They actually came with their mentor, and had been interested in learning more about working with MIS products, and specifically the MGUIDE system and guided implantology.

 

After a fantastic lunch, the afternoon sessions continued. But not before another amazing performance by our Japanese drum troupe.  The presentations continued with part 2 lectures by Drs. Gamborena, Suzuki, and Okawa. 

 

Ending the first day, was Dr. Mirela Feraru with an excellent talk on obtaining long-term stability and controlling the different stages of workflow while visualizing the end result. Dr. Feraru spoke about the new MIS CONNECT, and how it allows doctors to move the entire prosthetic work away from the interface.

 

The first day of the conference ended with a full panel discussion, moderated by Professor Nitzan Bichacho, where some interesting questions were raised about the different approaches presented during the day. 

 

After a long day of lectures, it was time to let loose and relax on the beautiful terrace overlooking the sea, have a cocktail, and dance to some great music by a live band. Perfect.

 

Although the second day of the conference was only scheduled for the morning, it was a full house of participants that came to see a joint lecture by Dr. Florin Cofar and Dr. Eric Van Dooren, and continuing lectures by Drs. Gamborena and Suzuki. 

 

All in all, it was a very successful conference and set a very high bar for all future events in the region.