01 Mar IT IS A PRIDE FOR OUR CLINIC TO HAVE BROUGHT RONALDO HIRATA TO TENERIFE
Fran Naveiras: ”Our profession has changed in the last eight years as much as in the last hundred ones” Doctor of Dentistry
On february 18th and 19th Ronaldo Hirata taught in La Laguna a masterclass on “dental sculpture with composite resins on the anterior and posterior teeth”. Naveiras Dental Clinic invited this eminent dentist to Tenerife, making posible two very enriching training days. Fran Naveiras takes stock in the following interview of this experience and tells us about how the organization of this course was developed on a leading technique worldwide.
What moved you to bring Ronaldo Hirata to Tenerife?
For Canarian dentists, training has historically meant getting out of the Canary Islands. In my case, I trained in the United States, in New York, where I was lucky to have met Ronaldo Hirata and to become his friend. For this reason I proposed him the idea of coming to Tenerife. He loves travelling and alays wished to visit us. Although he has a very busy Schedule, he found a gap and fortunately we were lucky and able to count on his presence.
We are talking about the number one worldwide in Restorative Dentistry.To get an idea of this, five years ago, Ronaldo filled the Madison Square Garden in New York in one of his talks. Therefore, it is a pride for our clinic to have brought him to the island.
Our profession is very lonely and everytime you want to train, you must fase the costs of the courses,as well as travel and accomodation. That is why we desire to créate a spirit that makes it posible for that training to be offered and carried out here, without travelling abroad. I really believe that is for our best and in the process we sae a lot of money.
Are you satisfied with the obtained response?
First of all we have to say that we are facing an eminently practical course, and that due to its characteristics, it could not exceed 25 students. We were not moved by an economic desire, we were simply moved by the desire to offer quality training. Therefore, we are very satisfied because we have had assistants from all the Canary Islands.
The conference had a theoretical part, in which Ronaldo explained the steps to be followed, and then a practical one. We are not talking about conferences, we are talking to explain the reconstructive process, and incidentally, it has been giving us valuable tricks.
What has surprised you most about this “masterclass”?
In my opinion, what has surprised the audience the most is Ronaldo`s personality. I think he became a lecturer and has been a friend of all of us.
Naveiras Dental Clinic once again opts for training with this masterclass, which is part of the center`s hallmarks.
That is the way it is. In fact, I currently run a “study club” of the ITI (International Team for Implantology). This is a foundation based in Switzerland which gives us every year great facilities to have speakers of worldwide relevance. Organizing such large courses is hard but I think it is worth the effort. We are not in favour of organizing many courses, we prefer to focus on a quality one per year.
The good thing about all this is that you get in touch with other colleagues, and we must not forget that in the Canary Islands we do not have a Faculty of Dentistry, and where there is no university, training is more complicated. If you want to be in touch with the profession you must train. Otherwise, you will be left behind. Hence the importance of having here professionals such as Ronaldo Hirata.
Our profession has changed in the last eight years as much as in the last one hundred ones. Nowadays, Digital Dentistry has uprooted traditional Dentistry. Today we allow treatments with a series of techniques that enable us to compete worldwide. I do not say that we do things better, but we do.Ten years ago, what I am explaining was unthinkable and less on our land. We have here great professionals now the roads have been opened. Digital technique allows you to take a measurement in Tenerife and work with a laboratory in Japan. You can also select the best laboratory for different jobs.
The access to digital libraries has also been an important turn when it comes to making, for example, smile designs. You can plan now a work and know what the result will be before starting it.
So, what we see in this course is not the future of the profession but the present of it.
It is absolutely the present., and in this case from the hand of a world “ top ten “. This course has also revealed that behind the digital, a human soul will always be needed, an artist like Ronaldo Hirata who “gives life” to the tooth. The digital technique will not eliminate the human being behind when carving a tooth.
Do you think that our society is sufficiently mentalized about the need for good oral health or is it still necessary to go to the dentist only when it hurts?
Firstly, we can think thar age will prevent us from enjoying many of the pleasures of life and that you will be a pain collector, but today, Dentistry can allow you to continue with the pleasure of eating. It is important to know this. Life expectancy is long and Dentistry allows you to continue enjoying a good serrano ham roll.
Having fear and being afraid of visiting the dentist is something already overcome. The professionals we have today have nothing to do with the past. Awesome campaigns are made especially for children. The population is being made aware of diseases that may be suffered due to lack of a good oral health.
What is the oral health of the canaries like?
We have evolved better. The diet has improved and we notice it. There is also the awareness we are talking about. Nowadays you can do preventive and not only curative Dentistry. Dentists are cheap if we visit them every year, because things can be taken on time. It is not the same to fix a window at home than to accomplish a complete reform. That is where we unfairly take a reputation for being expensive.
Texts extracted from the newspaper La Opinión de Tenerife.