The journey to prevention-focused dentistry begins with a personal aha-moment, and transforms not only practices, but also lives.

It's a cold December evening as screens light up in Bristol, Lisbon, Split, Bucharest, São Paulo, and other cities across Europe and South America. It's time for the last Chit-Chat Live of the year.

No presentations. No webinars. Just the first "Global Toast" of the Curiosity community and genuine encounters between people united by one thing: They've found the courage to think about dentistry differently.

"I thought it was in the genes!"

Luja smiles as she talks about her family. The Croatian dentist knows the excuse all too well: "I inherited bad teeth." In Croatia, where caries prevalence remains high, she hears this sentence almost daily.

But her own family history tells a different truth.

"Everyone had poor periodontal health, both on my father's side and my mother's side. There were only two islands of health: my brother and me."

The difference? Their mother was a periodontist who gave them a prevention program from the very beginning.

"My brother works in a bank, has nothing to do with dentistry. And yet he's had perfectly healthy teeth for half a century."

Even more impressive is her husband's story. When Luja met him over 25 years ago, he was an average Croatian – with fillings, root canals, and everything that goes with it. After the wedding, he too got his prevention program.

"And he's not particularly motivated with brushing or flossing," Luja admits with a grin. "But you can develop a habit – and this habit works. For the last ten years, I've only done check-ups on him."

The myth of bad genes? Debunked. What matters are habits.

The surgeon who put down the scalpel

On the other side of the screen, Paul nods in agreement. The periodontist from Bristol has been on a similar journey – except he had to completely overturn his entire professional approach.

"When I graduated from dental school in the mid-80s and then did my periodontal specialisation in Bristol, everything was extremely surgically oriented," he recalls.

For years, the scalpel was his most important tool. Until a team came to the university that pursued a completely different approach – non-surgically oriented.

"I began to realise how much we can achieve without surgery."

His former boss had a saying that stays with Paul to this day: "If you don't need the surgery, I don't need the practice."

Paul laughs. "I think I've come to a similar point."

Today, his main interest lies in personalised periodontal medicine. From classic periodontal surgery to a large hygiene team. "We do patients so much more good with so much less effort."

The psychologist who transformed a practice

In Lisbon, Cassiana listens attentively. As a psychologist and Patient Experience Officer, she has a different perspective on dentistry – but an equally powerful story of transformation.

"Our team wanted to perform complex operations, solve complex cases. But the percentage of patients who come and ask for that isn't that large."

In Portugal, where prevention awareness is still lacking – "You can look at our TV presenters or even politicians and see that there's not much care there" – the practice faced a decision.

Either go out with aggressive marketing strategies looking for patients who want implants. Or do something different.

"We're a local practice and we're available to answer the questions people have regarding their health."

The turning point came ten years ago when they brought dental hygienists into the team. "That really changed our mindset. We help our patients and our community first develop a habit – to care about their health."

First the habit. Then the trust. Then the complex treatments.

Behind this is also a strategic consideration: "We treat these patients with implants – but what happens in five or ten years? Do they come back then because they're losing their implants too? It was a mindset shift."

How a book changed everything

On the screen from São Paulo, Carla's eyes light up. "My life in dentistry changed when I read the Gentle Guide last year."

She had graduated in 2012 and actually wanted to leave the profession. Twelve years later, she read a book – and fell in love with her profession again.

This year she took the leap and opened her own practice. With a clear focus on prevention, smiles, and periodontology.

"I used to think I needed complex restorations and implants for my practice. Then I returned to prevention and understood: I can make people healthy with prevention."

She pauses briefly. Then she says emphatically: "I don't need the disease, the periodontal problems. I need health. And that's so beautiful."

The dedication to dignity

Miruna from Bucharest becomes quiet as she talks about the encounter that changed everything. During her clinical training, she worked on the complete denture ward. Edentulous people. Old people. People the system had forgotten.

"I saw so many people with dentures, edentulous arches, geriatric patients. From that moment on, I promised myself to do my best to treat this category of people."

One encounter in particular has burned itself into her memory. A 98-year-old woman, very ill.

"But she wanted to be treated like a normal person, not like a weak one."

Miruna spent an entire month there. "I treated her like my grandmother, even though I knew she would die in a few weeks. I wanted to make her a new complete denture and enable her to have that small time of her life in better conditions."

Today she focuses her energy on developing prevention programs for nursing homes. For the people who are otherwise forgotten.

The pioneer who first learned to take care of interdental spaces at university

João from Coimbra laughs as he talks about his beginnings. "When I started my course, I didn't know exactly what I was getting into."

He was among Portugal's first dental hygienists – a profession that was practically unknown at the time.

"At that time, we had no habit of prevention in Portugal. I didn't know how you have to care of the spaces between the teeth too. I learned it at university for the first time."

Today, 30 years later, Joao is Vice President of the Portuguese Dental Hygienists Association and founding member of the European Dental Hygienist Association.

What drives him? "Over the years, the significance grows, and I'm more motivated each year – strangely, because over the years some people slow down. But I'm more interested in prevention each year."

His philosophy: "Small things that change a lot."

The AI developer with a heart for children

Ivy from England apologizes for her hoarse voice – she has a cold. But nothing could have stopped her from being there.

Her passion for prevention began over 20 years ago during her master's degree in Community Dental Practice, when she noticed that many children were being put to sleep to have their teeth removed.

The numbers are shocking: In 2024, this cost the British health service £74 million.

"It's not just traumatic and expensive, but it also affects the parents and caregivers. They have to take time off work."

That was the moment that made her a prevention advocate.

During her master's studies, she came across literature she has never forgotten: "The loss of a tooth is comparable to grieving." This insight drives her to this day. Recently she developed an AI agent for early detection of caries – a tool meant to go into the community to educate and empower people.

"I believe in patients' responsibility for their own teeth. I could go on forever because I'm so passionate about prevention."

The mouth as a gateway to the body

As the third round of conversation begins, Paul returns to the topic close to his heart: systemic health.

"The concept that the mouth is the entry point to the body. I sometimes have to tell patients when we talk about bacteria: This is just your gut unfolding on your skin. It's not surprising. It's a complex microbiome in the mouth."

He talks about a clinical trial with Diabetes UK that concluded two years ago: A questionnaire that selects patients who should be screened for diabetes.

The connection between oral health and systemic diseases – that's the future Paul envisions. Personalized periodontal medicine that sees the whole person.

The gentle revolution

What becomes clear on this December evening in 2025: A gentle revolution is taking place in practices around the world.

Dental professionals are discovering that their greatest impact doesn't lie in the operating room. But in building relationships. In creating habits. In preventing disease before it arises.

They're fighting against deeply rooted beliefs:

  • "Bad genes"
  • "It runs in the family"
  • "There's nothing you can do about it"

They prove with their own family stories, their patients, their communities: Prevention works. And they're not doing this in isolation.

In this one evening, stories from seven countries, three continents, different cultures connect – with a common vision:

Dentistry that treats people with dignity. Dentistry that creates health instead of repairing disease. Dentistry that transforms communities instead of just treating individual teeth.

Luja puts it perfectly: "You can develop a habit – and this habit works."

Sometimes the greatest innovation isn't a new technology. Not a revolutionary technique. Sometimes it's simply the courage to put people at the center and believe in the power of prevention.

The next Chit Chat Live Event takes place in January 2025. Join us and share your story with the community.