In Madrid, December 13
This year the Paediatrics-Pediatric Dentistry Conference reaches its fifteenth edition, an anniversary that, according to its promoters and organizers, the pediatric dentist, Paloma Planells, and the pediatrician, Carlos Marina, will celebrate as it deserves. The appointment, in Madrid, on December 13.
—How did the idea of collaborating between these two different specialties, Pediatrics and Pediatric Dentistry come about? —Everything was the result of our chance meeting during a doctorate course held at the Faculty of Dentistry of the Complutense University of Madrid. This circumstance was enriched by the "happy idea" of Dr. Planells – the intelligent feminine intuition in motion, points out Dr. Marina –, who proposed the immediate collaboration of the two scientific societies, Pediatric Dentistry and Pediatrics, in which both we developed institutional managerial tasks.
—Was the beginning of this joint work difficult? -Absolutely. We have always been lucky enough to have the invaluable scientific collaboration of the best professionals, both pediatricians and pediatric dentists, to act as guest speakers at each Conference, developing current issues, with a direct, practical and eminently didactic style; and, most importantly, with interest shared by both pediatricians and pediatric dentists.
—What do you think has been the link for this original collaboration? —The key to this fertile joint scientific work between paediatricians and pediatric dentists is, neither more nor less, that the child. The ultimate goal of our professional work is caring for the health of human beings while their growth and development lasts, that is, during the pediatric age. The pediatrician acting in a general medical way and the pediatric dentist on a punctual, but broad maxillofacial, dental, masticatory, etc. aspect. Always with the child and the adolescent as the common object of our efforts.
—Has the annual celebration of these Collaboration Days been positive for both types of professionals? - Hugely positive. Pediatricians have learned to value, more and more, the essential professional collaboration of the pediatric dentist in the oral health care of our children and adolescents; both throughout the different age periods of the child's life, as well as in the face of possible traumas or accidents, maxillofacial or dental, without forgetting the congenital anomalies of this delicate anatomical area for children. And pediatric dentists are increasingly taking into account how children and adolescents do not have to explore their oral apparatus in isolation, but rather in permanent collaboration with the pediatrician. It is essential to assess the health of the child as a whole, with its most varied circumstances: alterations in normal development, infections, traumas, and other possible pathologies.
—How many participants will there be in this edition? —Each call exceeds the number of attendees to the previous one. Our meeting days usually bring together more than four hundred professionals from the health area with great interest in learning about complementary and common aspects around the comprehensive health of the growing human being.
—What topics will be addressed in the presentations? —The speakers at these conferences are two pediatricians and two specialists in dentistry. The presentations from the pediatric world will bring us closer to the knowledge of topics as current as cyberbullying in Pediatrics or sleep apnea / hypopnea syndrome in child patients and their repercussions at a general level of the organism. On the dental side, we will deal with highly topical topics such as minimally invasive dentistry and its applications in pediatric dentistry, as well as dental trauma in childhood, the latter of great interest to the pediatrician both in his daily consultation and in the hospital emergency room. .
—What message would you send, on this 15th Anniversary, to professionals –pediatricians and pediatric dentists– interested in these meeting days? —We would highlight the enormous and irreplaceable value of continuing scientific education. No responsible professional can do without a periodic "updating" of the changing knowledge that, at unsuspected speed, is presented for consideration, study and application. Finally, we would not like to forget all those who collaborate annually to make these conferences a resounding success, fundamentally their coordinators, doctors Eva Mª Martínez and Mónica Miegimolle.