An interview with Dr Raquel Zita Gomes on implantology

Dental Tribune International

Tue. 2. July 2024

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One of the prominent speakers at DDS.Berlin, the first edition of the Digital Dentistry Show, was Dr Raquel Zita Gomes, a Portuguese implant dentist with extensive clinical, industry and academic experience. Across the event’s programme on 28 and 29 June, Dr Zita Gomes presented two lectures and convened two workshops, engaging with interested participants throughout. After wrapping up her formal participation, she joined Dental Tribune International for an interview about her perspectives on implantology, women in dentistry, and the benefits and shortcomings of the rapidly changing technological landscape.

Dr Zita Gomes, could you begin by telling us a little about your background and experience in dentistry?
I’m a dentist with 22 years of professional experience as well as a master’s and a PhD in implantology. I also lecture regularly at universities, both in Portugal and around the world. Being an oral surgeon, I’m still a woman in a man’s world, since the specialisation continues to be dominated by men. We have a lot of women dentists but there are far fewer in surgery. This is one of the main reasons that I have been involved with a variety of organisations to empower women, because we still are very far away from equality of opportunity. Besides being a dental professional, I’m a woman, a wife, a mother, an entrepreneur and a speaker, and I really love what I do. I’m very passionate about teaching. There is a lot of hard work behind my accomplishments, and people often don’t realise that there are many sacrifices that have to be made in order to excel.

Could you share some details about your experience with the Digital Dentistry Society and how it is connected to your involvement in efforts to empower women in the dental industry?
My connection with the Digital Dentistry Society started in 2017, when it was created by Dr Henriette Lerner. She invited me to join a movement that she had created called Leading Ladies in Dentistry, which included 20 or 30 other women dentists from around the world. The first meeting was held in in 2017 in Baden-Baden in Germany, and it was an important statement to showcase women with strong professional backgrounds, substantial experience and good presentation skills. The meeting attracted speakers from India, Portugal, Spain, Hungary and other countries as well. At the time, I was already part of another group, called Divas in Dentistry, which was created approximately ten years ago. The objective of the name was to create a buzz, because we felt that we needed to make a positive statement about our identity as women to the effect that we are also here, we exist, and we are divas in terms of our profession. I’m also an ambassador of FDI World Dental Federation’s Women Dentists Worldwide, for whom I will be doing a lecture in September. The objective of Leading Ladies in Dentistry working together with the Digital Dentistry Society was creating a partnership where we could start sharing the same stage instead of having our meetings in parallel. The objective is to be integrated, not segregated. Finally, last week, I was in Turkey at the WOW (Woman of Wisdom) conference, which is another new movement designed to generate awareness and provide an example to the next generation of how women can succeed in dentistry. When I entered the dental industry, there were only a handful of role models for me, so the goal is to make a positive difference for women who are now coming into this profession.

How have you found DDS.Berlin? Have you enjoyed the focus on digital dentistry?
Yes, it has been really enjoyable. It has been a very intense gathering for me, since I had two lectures and two workshops, all of which were really well attended. One of the lectures was about new trends in implantology, which was more about digital dentistry and the new technologies it utilises. Our knowledge has evolved greatly since I started in the field 22 years ago, so what was true 20 years ago may not be true now. My second lecture was about the theory and practice of implantology, understanding when and how to place an implant. To have this practical understanding, you need to read a lot and do a lot of research, so I tried to summarise these topics in a clear, understandable way so that clinicians will be able to implement what they have learned when they return to their practices. Decisions in a clinic should not be based on opinion but on scientific research; if you follow that, there’s no way to make a mistake. My perception was that people really engaged, since the lectures and workshops were very well attended, and people were eager to participate. My approach is to explain things in a practical way, providing simple advice about the dos and don’ts of dentistry.

Digital dentistry is a powerful trend in the dental industry. Where do you see it moving in the future?
The future is already here. For me, one of the most important and also challenging developments is the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), which is already changing dentistry drastically. AI has both good and bad sides. Sometimes, people can be overly trusting about whatever the computer says and may not question the information provided critically. My generation had to study from books, and we didn’t have the internet, which meant that you learned how to carefully acquire knowledge over time. Whereas today, if you want to know something, then there are platforms like Google that can provide answers immediately and with no effort. People may even turn to Instagram for answers on important issues. But when these methods are used, a lot of the time you will not receive the right answers. We are dealing in scientific matters, so we need to engage with scientific knowledge. It’s a little bit frightening, because people think that everything looks easy and it’s not. Of course, the technology helps a lot, especially in the diagnostic sphere, but to be honest, I think that, for someone to be totally proficient digitally, he or she needs to be very good analogically first. To go from analogue to digital, that’s very logical, but to go from digital to analogue is not possible, because you don’t have the practical skills. The problem is that nowadays digital products are marketed as a solution for every problem, and their application is made to look very easy, but when it goes wrong, and you don’t know how to deal with a complicated situation, then problems can quickly arise. The issue is that many people think that you can press a button and everything will be done—but you need the skills, the technical surgical skills. Most importantly, the advances that are being made in the field of AI need to be underpinned by rigorous technical expertise in order to ensure the best possible clinical outcome for patients.

Editorial note:

More information about DDS.Berlin can be found at dds.berlin.