WELCOME MESSAGE
We are very excited that the FDI Annual World Dental Congress is taking place in 2015 for the first time in Thailand. The country is in the process of becoming a major venue for debate on key issues such as oral health and population ageing, caries control and prevention and innovative practices such as minimal intervention dentistry.
The FDI AWDC raises the bar by bringing a new international perspective to regional and national debate on oral health, dental practice and health politics. It provides a huge opportunity to share knowledge and experience with dental colleagues from every continent, to challenge our own ideas and widen our perception. This international perception is even more essential in a world of migration of dentists and dental patients.
Thailand is also fast gaining an enviable reputation for the quality of its oral care, backed by its Universal Coverage programme, implemented in 2002, which gives them better access to health services, including dental services.
Furthermore, rising awareness of dental and oral health and hygiene, a growing population and increasing per capita incomes will ensure a constant increase in demand for dental products and services.
The World Dental Exhibition has been an integral part of the FDI Annual World Dental Congress ever since 1929, when an Oral Health Exhibition first took place in association with the 23rd FDI Annual Session in Utrecht (Netherlands). Dental exhibitions play and essential role for dentists and other oral health practitioners: where else but at a dental exhibition can they find and examine the latest in technology and products to recommend to patients?
With its wide choice of hotels and other accommodation, a very hospitable local population, superb cuisine and entertainment and wealth of cultural opportunities, Bangkok is a prime destination for the discerning traveller. Built in 1997, the Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Center (BITEC) is today a highly acclaimed exhibition venue, accessible from Bangkok itself by the renowned Skytrain.
After our 100th anniversary Hong Kong in 2012, this is the second time in three years that FDI, the international voice of dentistry, has demonstrated its confidence in the Asia Pacific region as an area of growth and development in the field of dentistry and the dental sector.
Together, FDI and the Dental Association of Thailand are> planning a uniquely relevant and, we hope, enjoyable AWDC. We look forward to welcoming you the single most significant dental event in Asia-Pacific in 2015.