Report of the 81st Congress of the European Orthodontic Society, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Prior to the start of the conference, a number of meetings took place. The second meeting of the European Postgraduate Students Orthodontic Study Group (EPSOS) was held on the 2nd June, 2005. This is arranged entirely by the postgraduates at which they present cases they have treated to each other. This has proved extremely popular and the EOS has agreed to provide facilities for this to be held annually. On the same day, the Forum of National Orthodontic Societies took place and there were discussions on a number of topics. In particular, the question of whether to continue to hold the Forum was considered, since most of the points had been discussed at the General Assembly of the EFOSA. The consensus opinion was that it was a duplication and, at the Business Meeting of the EOS, it was agreed that the Forum should no longer be held. The EFOSA are looking at ways in which countries who are not members of their Society could participate in their meetings.The European Board of Orthodontists examination took place on the 3rd and 4th June, 2005 at the Department of Orthodontics, ACTA, Amsterdam, and the following were accepted as Board Members: Monique Chouvin (France), Guido Herzog (Switzerland) and Toshio Deguchi, Chiori Hashiba, Toshiaka Hiro and Yasuko Kuroda (Japan).
Some of the 1,100 delegates who attended the meeting and who arrived for the Congress on Friday the 3rd June, 2005 will not forget their welcome! During the late afternoon heavy storms swept over Amsterdam which resulted in flooding and major disruption to the transport system, including delays to all flights arriving at Schiphol airport.
Demetrios Halazonetis, who is well known for his expertise with computers, gave the pre-congress course on ‘Cephalometrics in the digital age: new directions in clinical practice’, while the postgraduate courses were on ‘Basics of cleft lip and palate treatment’ and ‘Biology of orthodontic tooth movement’. These were given by Christos Katsaros and Jaap Maltha, respectively.
The opening of the Congress took place on the 4th June, 2005. This was followed by the Sheldon Friel Memorial Lecture, which was given by Irma Thesleff of Finland on ‘Developmental biology and the development of orthodontics’, and the Houston Research Lectures. The winner was Alexander Dudic of Switzerland for his research on ‘Pain discomfort and crevicular fluid changes induced by orthodontic elastic separators in children’. This was followed by the start of the scientific programme on ‘Biology in daily orthodontics’ with keynote addresses from Jonathan Sandy of the UK and Jaap Maltha of the Netherlands. The President's reception was held during the evening at the Amsterdam Convention Factory, a converted premises, where during the 17th century construction of tall three-masted ships was undertaken. For the first time in the history of the EOS, the Silver Mill Competition was held during the reception. Both ‘muscle force’ and ‘creativity’ were the ingredients required to win this well-known international competition. Some delegates claimed that the representatives of some countries were pulling the rope (first part of the competition) with a different sample size, although a statistical analysis did not reveal any significant difference (don't forget that the EOS is a scientific society!) – therefore the error of the method was considered as negligible. In the second part of the competition ‘art in orthodontics’ was tested. The four best countries (selected because of their best developed muscles) were asked to complete some beautiful drawings by means of graffiti. Although a broad and remarkable variety of art was observed, the Belgians were considered to be the best ‘graffitists’ of Europe and the surrounding countries. It was generally accepted that the Belgian artistic talent may not have been the best, but they proved to be ‘masters’ in painting between the lines. I have been told that the jury was physically threatened after the announcement of the winners and therefore decided to go to bed very early that night. During the tough competition a great atmosphere was noticed, which was highly appreciated by the orthodontic youth (as they love decibels).
On Sunday, Junji Sugawara of Japan opened the session on ‘Interdisciplinary orthodontics’ with a keynote address on ‘The skeletal anchorage system: beyond the limits of traditional orthodontics’ and David Sarver of the USA spoke on ‘Contemporary orthodontics and the progression to soft tissue based diagnosis and treatment planning’. The keynote lecturers on ‘Cephalometric alternatives’ were Monica Palmer of Germany and Maurice Mommaerts of Belgium. The poster session, which gives delegates an opportunity of discussing their research, was held in the early afternoon. The postgraduate disco, at which there is never a lack of participants, took place during the evening in a former chapel and, as in previous years, dancing continued until the early hours.
The keynote lecturers on Monday on the topic of ‘The digital decade’ were Kenji Takada of Japan and James Mah of the USA. This was followed by the announcement of the various award winners. These were: Houston Research Poster – Solveig Jònsdòttir of the Netherlands; and EOS posters – F Bercalz (Switzerland), A Vicente Hernández (Spain) and A Jónsson (Sweden). The Beni Solow Award for the best article published in the EJO in 2004 was presented to Calaberta Verna et al. for their research on ‘Microcracks in the alveolar bone following orthodontic tooth movement: a morphological and morphometric study’. The gala dinner took place in the Winter Garden of the Hotel Krasnapolsky which is situated in Dam Square. A delicious meal, in a beautiful and enjoyable environment with great music, will remain in the thoughts of those who attended this event. Before passing the presidential badge to Professor Hans-Peter Bantleon who will hold the meeting in Vienna, Austria, from 4 to 8 July 2006, Professor Kuijpers-Jagtman presented those involved in the organization of the Congress. Great applause for all of them was the expression of recognition and thanks for all their hard work.
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The Congress outing on Tuesday paid homage to one of the best known painters in the Netherlands, Vincent van Gogh. Before visiting the exposition in the museum we were extensively informed about Van Gogh's life by the director of the museum. All those who subscribed to the outing will not forget the ‘beauties’ painted by this artist.
The European Orthodontic Society wishes to express its enormous thanks to Professor Kuijpers-Jagtman, Professor Kastaros, Dr J Schols and the entire organising committee for all their hard work. The congress in Amsterdam will remain in our minds as a great event.
Please note that the abstracts from the meeting will be published, in due course, online at: www.ejo.oxfordjournals.org
Luc Dermaut
Honorary Secretary
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