Dr Roman Šmucler: “Dentistry cannot prevent technological change”

According to Dr Roman Šmucler, dentistry’s future depends not on resisting technology but on guiding its safe, ethical and clinically meaningful use. (Image: Dr Roman Šmucler)

Dr Šmucler, what does it mean for you personally and professionally to welcome the FDI World Dental Congress to Prague for the first time?
It is a dream fulfilled because we worked towards this for many years. At times, it seemed almost impossible. Prague is a relatively small city compared with places such as Shanghai, where the congress has previously been held, or Mumbai, where the congress will take place next year.

For me, the most important thing is that people are happy to be here. From the outset, our aim was to create an enjoyable and rewarding experience for delegates—one where people could connect, engage and make the most of their time together. I hope we have achieved that.

You have previously said that the 2026 congress would be where “the future of dentistry becomes visible”. What changes do you believe will define the future of the profession?
Dentistry is changing completely. The dentistry I studied hardly exists any more. The old philosophy was very much about drilling and filling and about dentistry as a predominantly technical profession. The European tradition, however, has historically been more medical. I have a Doctor of Medicine, and my dental education included a substantial amount of medicine. That background is becoming increasingly useful because caries experience has declined in many populations, while the medical aspects of dentistry are becoming more important.

Another major development is AI. AI has advanced enormously, and I believe that, in many situations, it may eventually become risky for clinicians not to use it. We therefore need to learn how to use AI properly, including understanding the ethical considerations surrounding it.

We cannot rely only on what we remember from university or on our individual clinical experience. Every patient has hundreds or thousands of individual parameters. AI gives us the ability to analyse far more information and individualise care to a degree that was previously impossible.

Robotics will also become increasingly important. Robots may support clinicians in performing certain procedures with great precision, including aspects of implant treatment. This could make training more efficient and help younger dentists perform such procedures to a high standard more quickly. However, the profession must remain actively involved in shaping these developments. We cannot simply allow technology companies to decide what dentistry becomes.

How is technology already changing dental education and knowledge transfer?
Knowledge transfer is changing significantly. In the past, when a highly experienced professor died, much of that person’s knowledge disappeared. Some of it was captured in textbooks, but much was lost. Today, digital systems and AI give us the possibility of retaining and sharing far more accumulated knowledge.

Education is already changing as well. My daughter recently finished medical school, and during her final years, she studied extensively with AI. Traditional teaching can be very slow: someone may spend 90 minutes delivering a conventional PowerPoint lecture. AI can work intensively with a student, in the language that the student prefers, ask questions and adapt teaching to individual strengths and weaknesses.

I experienced something similar during a programme at Harvard University. AI made it possible to have something resembling an individual tutor adapted to the student. Providing that level of individualisation with human teachers alone would be extremely difficult.

What would you like international delegates to understand about Czech dentistry?
The Czech Republic has a strong tradition of high-quality dentistry and a long history of medicine and higher education. It is a relatively small country, but that does not mean that its contribution to dentistry is small. One interesting feature is the relatively young average age of dentists here. Dentistry has become one of the most sought-after fields of study in the Czech Republic and has considerable prestige in Czech society. It combines medicine with manual and technical work, and dentists also have a high degree of professional independence.

There is also strong competition. Prague alone has a very large number of dentists, so practitioners have to distinguish themselves and maintain a high standard if they want to succeed.

“The important point is that the world is changing, and we have to adapt.”

What lasting legacy would you like the congress to leave for Czech dentistry and for the wider profession?
For Czech dentistry, I hope that the congress will create a sense of pride. I want Czech dentists to understand that being from a relatively small country does not limit what they can achieve. If they work hard, they can do extraordinary things. The second important legacy is international cooperation. I was very happy to see ordinary practising dentists—not only academics—making connections here with colleagues from different countries.

For international delegates, I hope that Prague will remain a very positive personal memory. I also would like them to leave with a stronger message: dentistry is at a crossroads. If we simply continue doing what we are doing now, parts of the profession may become obsolete. Dentistry must evolve because the world around it is changing incredibly quickly.

You have been involved in AI-related projects, including EU-funded research. How could these initiatives influence the future of dentistry?
There are many projects, but one example is a project funded through Horizon Europe, an EU research and innovation programme. I have been involved in developing the project together with Prof. Falk Schwendicke and a number of leading European institutions. One area we will work on is the use of AI in the diagnosis of head and neck cancer. This illustrates exactly why AI is so important. Analysing such large quantities of information through conventional human assessment alone is extremely difficult.

At the same time, consumer technology is developing extraordinarily quickly. I have also been involved in work on AI-supported toothbrush technology incorporating cameras. In the future, devices of this kind could potentially monitor changes in the oral cavity routinely at home.

That could transform prevention. Instead of asking only how we can ensure that every child visits a dentist once a year, we may be able to use digital tools for rapid triage. Triage is not the same as diagnosis, of course, but these systems can identify areas that warrant closer examination. As the technology becomes cheaper and more powerful, I expect such monitoring to become increasingly integrated into everyday life.

Looking ahead, what would responsible digital transformation in dentistry look like? What role should professional organisations play in guiding this development?
There will always be a difference between what professional organisations would ideally like and what happens in reality. I chair the FDI European Regional Organization’s Working Group on Digitalisation in Dentistry, where we work on policy and practical recommendations concerning AI and digital dentistry. These recommendations need to evolve continually because regulation and technology are changing so rapidly.  The EU AI Act is one example of the regulatory developments that need to be considered. At the same time, we have to be careful not to over-regulate. Excessive regulation will not necessarily stop technological development; however, it may create barriers to innovation or encourage people to find ways around the rules.

The important thing is to remain in touch with reality. Dentistry cannot prevent technological change. What professional organisations can and must do is provide safe guidance for its use. The crucial distinction is between telling AI simply to “write a paper” and using it as an intellectual partner that challenges your thinking. I find the latter extremely valuable. AI can point out that I do not have enough evidence for a statement, suggest that I verify something or raise an alternative interpretation.

Oral health is integral to general and systemic health. What needs to change for this connection to be better reflected in everyday care and health policy?
For me, it is both strange and rather sad that this connection needs to be emphasised, because it was considered obvious back when I trained in Czechoslovakia. When I studied, dentistry was regarded as one field within medicine rather than something entirely separate. I believe that the separation between dentistry and the rest of medicine has gone too far in many places.

In the healthcare environment we are moving towards, a narrow technical conception of dentistry will become increasingly difficult to defend because many of the purely technical tasks will be automated. Medical knowledge will therefore become even more important in dentistry. For me, there should ultimately be no fundamental division between dentists, ENT specialists and other doctors. They are different medical specialties, but they care for the same patient and need to function within the same healthcare system.

Oral health cannot sensibly be separated from general health. Dentistry has to be understood as part of medicine.