Introducing dentech 2024 

By Wenyuan Shi, PhD and Jill Sirko, PhD 

From appearances by rockstar Lenny Kravitz and former Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, to the public debut of the integration of the American Dental Association and the Forsyth Institute, every year dentech is full of pleasant surprises. The conference consistently draws a formidable cast of inventors, investors and the key movers and shakers of oral health. One past participant recently deemed it “one of the most important conferences in [the] dental industry.”

What is new for dentech 2024? We formed ADA Forsyth Institute (AFI) last year for the purpose of breaking down long-standing silos and creating an intimate connection between the largest national professional dental association and the world’s leader in oral health innovation, the combination of which is taking dentech to a whole new level.  This year, ADA Forsyth dentech 2024 aims to address the most critical question in our field: “What is the future of oral health?”  

This event will be bigger and better than ever, and you do not want to miss it!  The tentative scheduled programs are the following:

Session 1: The New ADA & AFI: Empowering Innovation

In this opening panel discussion, we will showcase how the new ADA, integrated with AFI, is leading the charge to accelerate oral health innovation. The panelists include incoming ADA President, Dr. Brett Kessler; ADA Executive Director, Dr. Raymond Cohlmia; ADA’s Vice President of Business Development and Innovation, Norman Kwong; Dr. Marko Vujicic, ADA’s Chief Economist and Vice President of the Health Policy Institute; and Dr. Wen Shi, CEO of AFI. Moderated by Dr. Ben Wu, CSO and COO at AFI, this exciting session will detail all the new initiatives we have been working on together during the last several months.  Of course, you can expect more surprises as we unveil exciting new programs poised to promote innovation and fast-track the lab to market pipeline.

Session 2: Q&A with the FDA

By popular demand, session 2 will feature a panel discussion with experts and FDA officials on how to work with the FDA to get your innovative products approved. This is your chance to make dentech work for you. As an attendee, you will have the opportunity to directly interact with the experts who will review your applications.  Do you have questions about regulatory compliance or how to get through the FDA approval process? What are some barriers you have faced that you would like to see resolved? Use the form below to send us your questions for the FDA to answer in real time during their dentech panel.

This is not just another discussion with the FDA. In addition to giving FDA representatives our list of questions, we will also explore how ADA and AFI can help to improve the regulatory process and better support oral health innovation, as we are a key member of the FDA network of experts, especially when it comes to innovative products in oral health. 

Session 3: Developing a National Oral Health Initiative

Last year we convened key experts in oral health to discuss a range of topics, including: public and private collaboration; innovative clinical care; dental/medical integration; and investments in oral health innovation. ADA is also one of the main drivers behind a new initiative at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), focused on advancing oral health across the lifespan.  This year, we are ready to bring these key issues to a new level. Convening leaders from various sects of oral health, we are creating an all-stakeholders roundtable discussion to develop a coordinated strategic initiative to put oral health on the national map. Join us for this interactive brainstorming session and be part of the future of oral health in America.

Session 4: Global innovation and investment

Many global dental leaders and investors have already registered to attend Dentech 2024.  To take full advantage of this rare opportunity, we will use the closing session to discuss how to coordinate innovation on a global level and de-risk investment with a two-market strategy. By focusing on how to accelerate market strategy by including international collaboration, attendees will gain insight into alternate pathways for bringing products to market.

Technology Showcase and Innovation Expo

ADA Forsyth dentech 2024 wouldn’t be dentech without our signature Technology Showcase and Innovation Expo. We return this year with a new application process to source the best innovative technology and business plans globally. The competition will be interwoven throughout both days of the event, and the dentech 2024 awards ceremony will close the conference.

Multiple dental investors attending dentech 2024 will act as judges for the pitch competition. In addition, the entire ADA Innovation Committee will be attending. This committee, which includes 18 members, is responsible for deciding which technology the ADA should support. If you are a dental startup, this premier event is your chance to pitch to all major investors in the field simultaneously.

The two highest scoring companies will be awarded a monetary prize, a trophy, and the opportunity to showcase their technology directly to dentists at ADA’s annual conference, SmileCon.