Dentsply Sirona is committed to empowering women in dentistry. The Smart Integration Award was presented for the first time in 2019. The award celebrates visionary treatment concepts and ideas for the future submitted by female dental experts. Owing to global interest, the organisers expanded the innovation categories in digital dentistry in 2021. This year, female dental professionals from 37 countries sent in their visionary ideas and information about their advanced implementation in practice.

“With the first competition, we were able not only to increase the proportion of female dentists in our growing dental professional network but also to get to know their different perspectives, which is great,” said Susanne Schmidinger, director of global brand marketing enabling devices at Dentsply Sirona Digital Solutions Marketing, in an interview earlier this year. “The Smart Integration Award honours the excellence and innovative spirit of women in dentistry,” she added.

At the virtual Smart Integration Award ceremony on 12 November, Dentsply Sirona announced the winners in five categories: Digital Clinical Workflow, Digital Patient Communication, Innovative Infection Control and Prevention, Management of Dental Equipment, and Smart Lab–Dentist Cooperation. In total, there were 35 winners from 17 countries.

During the ceremony, attendees were able to see the winners in all five categories and their short presentations. They were able to watch speeches by Don Casey, chief executive officer of Dentsply Sirona, Jorge Gomez, chief financial officer of Dentsply Sirona, Dr Terri Dolan, chief clinical officer of Dentsply Sirona, and other senior leaders. In addition, they were able to view the exciting entertainment programme streamed live from Paris.

As a guest of honour, Prof. Ihsane Ben Yahya, president of the World Dental Federation (FDI), attended the award ceremony. She is also convinced that initiatives such as the Smart Integration Award will increase the influence of women in dentistry: “I am certain that tonight’s winners are the leaders of tomorrow. And that the women gathered here will help lead the way to empower patients everywhere with innovative solutions and ideas that can revolutionize our industry.” Supporting and empowering women in dentistry is the common goal of FDI and Dentsply Sirona.

At the end of the ceremony, Casey emphasised the importance of innovation and thanked all the participants and organisers. He said: “I’d like to thank everybody involved in all the innovation areas. Your passion, commitment, and focus on the customer is so consistent with our values. We are on track in bringing our values to life every single day. Thank you again, and congratulations to the winners. I hope this is a really proud achievement for you. We are looking forward to doing it again next year. Keep driving innovation, and thank you for all you are doing.”