EFP: Leading the next generation in seeing periodontology as cool!

In this year’s series of partner interviews for the EFP newsletter, we are looking at how leadership in dentistry is going to play a vital and pivotal role in the years to come and how partners are ensuring that they are at the forefront of developing leadership that works. 

In this interview we talk to Andreas Stavropoulos, EFP Treasurer and Professor of Periodontology at Malmo University in Sweden, and student Melanie Llerena, who is doing her specialist training in periodontology and a master’s degree at the University of Turin in Italy, one of the EFP- accredited programmes

Andreas Stavropoulos is also Chair of the next EuroPerio12 in 10-13 May 2028 in Munich, a role that demands significant leadership. Melanie Llerena will have completed her studies by then and returned home to Ecuador where she has ambitions of leadership. Both were at EuroPerio 11, so what did they make of it?

“It was very dynamic, a lot of new people, young people, the majority were below 50 years old – about 30% below 35, and at least a third of them were first timers.”

Andreas expands his theme: “We’re really excited for this EuroPerio, it was very a very dynamic crowd, and a lot of focus in the scientific programme was put in the right place, in prevention.  EuroPerio has become a brand. It is not just a scientific event but a whole experience, a congress to be seen at and to be part of this environment.”

Melanie was certainly glad to be there. “For me what was very inspiring was the different talks and events that they had brought together. The two things that I would say periodontists like the most, are the scientific evidence along with the clinical expertise.”

Did she learn a lot? Oh yes! “There was new stuff, and also the surgical techniques seen in the live surgery session, seeing these top clinicians actually do it.  As a student, someone who is new, it is inspiring to feel ‘Oh, I’ve never thought of maybe doing this or holding the blade like that’.” Melanie also loves the fact that as a student, she had access to the “Perio Greats”, who shared insights into what they do on a daily basis.

For Andreas Stavropoulos, leadership is also about setting standards. “Take for example the 24 EFP- accredited post-graduate programmes. We have created a framework, setting a very high, standard of content – including a minimum level of resources – that programmes have to follow, in order to be accredited.” This ensures consistency, and the EFP post-graduate programme framework has gone beyond Europe. “We have accredited programmes in Hong Kong and Australia, “which reflects both the leadership and the EFP global presence”, says Andreas.

For Melanie, these standards are important. “It’s very important because even Latin America is trying to connect with the world around and we are trying to have a dental practice that is up to international standards and this is something I really like about the EFP. This globalisation of the Federation actually brings this part of medicine to countries that before didn’t have that.”

She is so passionate about this. “Everyone should be able to access knowledge, because then people like me can share it and be able to apply it to my community and my country. So mostly the duty of the EFP is to grant access to young dentists and young professionals.”

Melanie is lucky to have secured a place in Turin and it is thanks to her parents funding her studies that she is there.  She also feels a huge duty to pass on her knowledge, and as a master’s student she mentors and tutors the undergraduates which she feels is very vital.

Andreas Stavropoulos enthuses further: “Another example of pertinent leadership from the EFP is generating S3 clinical level guidelines, the highest level of clinical guidelines in medicine.”

So, is the EFP a bit of a trail blazer here?  “Let’s say, I wouldn’t say [they have] copied, but other scientific societies within dentistry have followed our paradigm.”

As mentioned, Andreas Stavropoulos is Chair of EuroPerio 12 in Munich. Where would he like to see the EFP by 2028? “I think we should continue producing high level of science and developing and expanding the S3 level clinical guidelines in different sub-areas of periodontology which we have not yet covered. For example, the next workshop is going to be related to gingival diseases and acute periodontal conditions. There will be other areas coming too.” 

“For EuroPerio 12 itself, we’ll try to bring some innovation into the programme, including different formats of sessions, and targeting the younger colleagues.” Is he excited? “I am definitely excited, and I’m humbled too for being selected for this task.”

Watch out Munich!

Melanie’s plans? “I would like to follow a PHD, here in Turin, always within periodontology.” And then the big dream, and you can hear the passion in her voice as she explains: “After all that is finished, I want to go back home and take a part of Italy back to Ecuador and start working at a university as a professor, specifically in perio.” 

It gets bigger than that though, and EuroPerio 11 is to blame!  “At the opening ceremony they had all the different national societies from around the world being part of it, and I noticed that there was no Ecuadorian one. For me, it will be a dream to go back, found one and then maybe you will have the Ecuador flag there alongside the ones from Colombia, Brazil, Mexico and Peru at an upcoming EuroPerio!”

Maybe this won’t quite happen by Andreas’s EuroPerio 12, but what an inspiration Melanie is. The future generations are a tonic to the EFP and you wonder whether, in 30 years time, Melanie will be on the EuroPerio stage or maybe Chair for an International Perio Master Clinic in her country?