Seychelles holds first ever international dental conference |27 March 2015

The Ministry of Health in association with the Dental Association of Seychelles is holding its first ever international dental conference.

The inauguration ceremony for the two-day conference took place at the Seychelles Institute of Teacher Education (SITE) auditorium at Mont Fleuri yesterday and the working sessions will continue today at the Seychelles Hospital.

The conference, which was officially opened by the Minister for Health Mitcy Larue, coincides with the World Oral Day celebrated on March 20 and is aimed at providing a global platform to introduce latest innovations, cutting-edge technologies that is currently revolutionising the practice of dentistry.

Also present at the opening ceremony were the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, David Pierre; high officials of the ministry of health; members of the dental association of Seychelles; as well as local and international representations.

Speaking on the importance of such a conference, Minister Larue  said: “In the sciences of medicine and dentistry, and in all sciences for that matter, continuous professional education is now a duty. And so it should be. The bobbin of science never stops spinning and all true scientists, all professionals worthy of their salt, need to always keep up with the spin.”

She also expressed her happiness and pride that her ministry has once again teamed up with a local professional association, this time with the Dental Association of Seychelles, to organise what she described as an important international, continuous and professional development event.

“Continuous professional development activities led by eminent academics is so lacking in Seychelles. And yet so needed to keep the knowledge and skills of our professionals as updated as can be,” said the minister.

She mentioned ther setting up of a high level working group to review the regulatory framework for medical and dental practice in Seychelles.

Though the group is yet to produce its final report it is well underway to recommend mandatory continuous professional development as a pre-condition for every medical practitioner or dentist in Seychelles to earn his/her licence to practice.
 
She described such achievement as a major step in the right direction as it will contribute immensely towards moving the practice of medicine and dentistry forward in Seychelles, thus improving the quality of care.

The minister also reminded all of Seychelles’ vision aspiration of becoming a knowledge-based society and skills-based society and that President Michel has expressed his vision in this area many times.

“Knowledge is never static. Knowledge evolves,” said the minister. But she also highlighted the role of the Ministry of Health as continuing to act as a catalyst and a facilitator in the pursuit of more knowledge gains and more skills gains for its employees.

The President of the Dental Association of Seychelles and also organising chairman of the event, Wix Cupidon, provided an insight into the conference.

Dr Gerhard Seeberger of Italy from World Dental Parliament in Geneva, Switzerland, based his presentation mainly on World Oral Health. He urged all to be responsible for their population and deliver not only oral but also the best health care.

As for Dr Ihsane Ben Yahya of Morocco, who is the liaison councillor of education commission from World Dental Parliament, said continued dental education must be a continuous phenomena.

International representatives received tokens of appreciation from the Minister of Health for their contributions towards the conference.
The event was animated by the Ministry of Health’s office choir.