Dentsply Sirona Recognizes Innovative Women in Dentistry with Smart Integration Award 2021

Many female dentists and dental technicians from around the world are enthusiastic about digital workflows and have a passion about well-connected treatment solutions. With this year’s Smart Integration Award, Dentsply Sirona recognized many of these innovative women who are working in a smartly integrated practice or lab environment and offer their patients excellent, modern treatment solutions.

This year’s winners were announced at a virtual awards ceremony on Nov. 12.

Dentists and dental technicians from around the world submitted their ideas for integrating digital technologies into the practices and dental laboratories of the future and improving the treatment experience for patients. The award ceremony was attended by 90 nominees, who had been selected by an international jury of Dentsply Sirona executives and renowned external experts. Winners were awarded in 5 categories: "Digital Clinical Workflow", "Digital Patient Communication", "Innovative Infection Control and Prevention", "Management of Dental Equipment", and "Smart Lab-Dentist Cooperation".

The innovation categories in the field of digital dentistry were expanded this year due to the high level of global interest. The pool of applicants was also larger: for the first time, dentists and dental technicians from the U.S. were also able to apply. With the Smart Integration Award, Dentsply Sirona wants to do justice to the growing proportion of women in dental professions, promote their skills, and improve their career opportunities.

Focus on Digital Workflow
Two of this year's Smart Integration Award winners are Shivi Gupta, DMD, from San Diego, California, and Christine Trautmann from Darmstadt, Germany. Dr Gupta took the prize in the "Digital Patient Communication" category. In 3 exemplary case descriptions, the CAD/CAM expert showed how she achieves high esthetic and functional success in treatment in her practice using a completely digital workflow. This also allows her to offer patients an efficient, comfortable treatment experience and precise results.

Trautmann convinced the jury in the "Smart Lab-Dentist Cooperation" category with her presentation of a fully digitalized ordering process between the dentist and lab.

"End-to-end digitized workflows are still a vision in this field – but a very desirable one," Trautmann said in the interview. "That's because they facilitate communication between both parties equally and give dental technicians the ability to meet individual restoration requirements even better."

Terri Dolan, DDS, Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer at Dentsply Sirona, sees great potential in the Smart Integration Award: "The significant interest from women worldwide shows us how important awards like this are. They recognize achievement and boost professional confidence, helping us promote gender parity in dentistry to support the next generation of female leaders." Dr Dolan is responsible for the Key Opinion Leader Network development program at Dentsply Sirona.

Prof. Ihsane Ben Yahya, President of the World Dental Federation FDI, attended the award ceremony as guest of honor. 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," she says. Supporting and empowering women in dentistry is the common goal of FDI and Dentsply Sirona.

Advanced Training and International Networking
Immediately after the award ceremony, the winners of the Smart Integration Award 2021 embarked on a 2-day expert training program consisting of training sessions, workshops, and seminars on numerous specialist topics relating to treatments. The program is designed to enable women to draw on the great potential of digital technologies in dentistry and dental technology.

Furthermore, the expert program promotes international networking among women in dentistry. The winners of the Smart Integration Award become automatically part of the "Smart Integration Network". Members of this network contribute practical and thus expert knowledge to further develop existing Dentsply Sirona products and find new, innovative solutions.

Integration and Equity
Beyond the Smart Integration Award, the company is comprehensively committed to equal rights, equal opportunities, and sustainability. Various initiatives for women support their development in dental professions and make their achievements visible. One of these is "First to 50," a global program to promote women as speakers. It aims to connect women to professional coaches to support their professional development and empower them to become speakers. Other measures relate to improved opportunities for networking and sharing experiences at panel discussions and conferences.

To achieve inclusion and equal opportunities for all employees within the company, Dentsply Sirona has launched Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) – interest groups to promote equity, diversity and inclusion. These include the "DS Women" initiative, which was founded in October 2020 and already has more than 750 members from 30 nations. The stated goal of DS Women is to promote more women to leadership positions at the dental manufacturer.

Equal Opportunities as a Pillar of Sustainability
In its new sustainability strategy published in September 2021, Dentsply Sirona also makes a clear commitment to equity. Among other things, the company defines the achievement of gender parity and gender pay equality by 2025 as a milestone on the way to a "brighter world." For Dentsply Sirona, the strategic pillar "Healthy Business" includes having 50 percent of its board members be gender and/or ethnically mixed and having 60 percent of its board committees chaired by women.

Below is a complete list of winners of the Smart Integration Award 2021:

Category: Digital Clinical Workflow

• Dr. Daniela Aggio, Brazil
• Dr. Kristine Aadland, USA
• Dr. Afsheen Lakhani, USA
• Dr. Miranda Hicks, USA
• Dr. Rani D'Haese, Belgium
• Dr. Anca Vereanu, Romania
• Dr. Alejandra De la Rosa, Spain
• Dr. Christine Bellmann, New Zealand
• Dr. Anne-Laure Charreteur, France

Category: Digital Patient Communication

• Dr. Nivedita Tiwari, India
• Dr. Gauri Mona Patel, USA
• Dr. Shivi Gupta, USA
• Dr. Melissa Meier, USA
• Dr. Michelle Farnoush, USA
• Dr. Jean Provo, Canada
• Dr. Jessica Giannatiempo, Italy
• Dr. Sabita Smail, USA
• Dr. Erin Green, USA

Category: Innovative Infection Control & Prevention

• Dr. Sonja Sälzer, Germany
• Dr. Thembeka Buleni, South Africa
• Dr. Haylea Blundell, Australia
• Dr. Karin Molhoek, Netherlands

Category: Management of Dental Equipment

• Mariella Scheunemann, Switzerland
• Dr. Roshni Patel, UK
• Kristin Fleischer-Kühn, Germany
• Dr. Jenny Apekian, USA
• Dr. Gilman Yücel, Turkey

Category: Smart Lab-Dentist Cooperation

• Jillian Swafford, USA
• Sara Bargen, USA
• Dr. Sarah Jockin, USA
• Dr. Terinder Chahal, Canada
• Dr. Eimear O'Connell, UK
• Christine Trautmann, Germany
• Dr. Petra Volz, Germany
• Dr. med dent Najla Chebib, Switzerland