Taiwan perio society’s global symposium tackles tough issues in periodontal and implant therapy

The Taiwan Academy of Periodontology (TAP), which became one of the EFP’s first six international associate members early in the year, recently held a global symposium in Taipei entitled “Challenges and solutions of periodontal and peri-implant therapy”.

Internationally renowned leaders in periodontology gave presentations that covered four of the most challenging fields in periodontal and implant therapy: hard- and soft-tissue regeneration, peri-implantitis, implant complications, and interdisciplinary therapy.

The symposium, held on November 22-24, was a record-breaking event with more than 700 attendees from 15 countries. The previous day, there was a hand-on workshop led by Anton Sculean (EFP president 2018-19), who focused on the reconstruction of soft-tissue defects around teeth and dental implants.

Shinya Murakami, Richard Kao, and Young Ku – respectively the presidents of the Japanese, American, and Asia-Pacific academies of periodontology – told the symposium about breakthroughs in the use of cytokines and stem cells and described new clinical skills in periodontal regeneration and bone regeneration.

There was a “presidential forum” on global strategies for periodontal disease prevention, with the aim of promoting the prevention of gum disease in the Asia-Pacific region. The presidents of various periodontology organizations from Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Americas will get together to share their experiences.

Paul Lin, past president of the TAP, and Prof Sculean conducted a dialogue between East and West on how to treat periodontal and peri-implant soft tissue defects. Leading clinicians Akira Aoki (Japan), Guo-Hao Lin (USA), and Frank Schwarz (Germany) discussed the efficacy of using lasers to treat peri-implant diseases.

Dr Schwarz shared his first-hand clinical research experience in the most advanced approaches to the treatment of peri-implantitis. He also gave a hands-on workshop on soft-tissue augmentation for the prevention and management of peri-implant diseases.

There were also presentations from international speakers on solving implant complications and innovative interdisciplinary therapies to treat the most difficult of cases.

“This was a fantastic symposium, which is evidence that periodontal leaders all over the world visited Taipei, Taiwan to exchange ideas, challenge thinking and expand our vision for a better global periodontal health,” said TAP president Tony Shing-Zeng Dung.

TAP has released a short video with highlights of the symposium, which can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/ZYHCE0sNIRk.