P&G: Prevention is better than cure

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 Svetlana Farrell, DDS, PhD. She is Senior Director, Global Oral Care Clinical and Pre-clinical Operations, Professional Scientific Relations, Data Science and Engineering for Oral-B. Prevention is probably the most important theme that Svetlana Farrell promotes in terms of leadership. Not surprising as Oral-B is most famous for electric toothbrushes and stannous fluoride toothpaste! “We believed for years that prevention of oral diseases is a really important step in achieving good oral health, and as an element of overall health and well-being specifically because gum disease is so common and is entirely preventable through oral hygiene and through establishment of good oral health habits. Dental professionals education is of paramount importance for prevention, this is why through the school programmes, we really try to create the importance of awareness of those messages and of the importance of prevention.”

At the recent EuroPerio11 in Vienna, Svetlana observed a shift in focus at the congress toward prevention in periodontal health. She noted, “There were significantly more symposia and presentations centered on prevention compared to previous years, where the emphasis was more on diagnosis and treatment.” Svetlana believes that congresses like EuroPerio serve as crucial platforms for emerging leaders in dentistry to showcase their talents. She was inspired by the high participation of younger professionals presenting cutting-edge research, stating, “It was energizing to see the quality of work from young researchers and students. Their contributions signify a promising future for periodontal research”, she emphasizes.  

What is Oral-B doing itself though to foster leadership in dentistry? “We believe that associations like EFP play an important role as leaders in setting up future direction in periodontology and multidisciplinary researches, this is why we also invest in exposing our own young talent to associations like the EFP, to congresses like EuroPerio, and we actually had quite a few of our recent hires representing our brand at the booth, where they had an opportunity to share the science behind our products, network, and build connections. Of course, you know by just the flow of visitors to our booths, we interacted with both the top key opinion leaders in the field as well as a lot of young scientists really interested in our technologies and prevention. So, all around it was just a really great experience in my opinion.”

Outside the conferences, what does Oral-B do daily? According to Svetlana Farrell, plenty!

Oral-B has robust internal programs aimed at developing leadership skills among its young scientists. Svetlana mentions, “We offer various training options for both technical mastery and leadership skills. Strong mentorship programs are also in place.” Externally, their outreach includes robust school and dental programs, focusing on early exposure to prevention and oral hygiene for dental students and postgraduates.

Svetlana takes pride in these initiatives, especially as emerging evidence links oral health to systemic health. Preventing poor oral outcomes can significantly contribute to overall health.  She adds that “over the last year, we've also been steadily growing our postgraduate education programmes for different specialties, and the periodontal specialty is, of course, part of that.”

With AI ever more present, and the young leaders of the future growing up in the digital age, how is Oral-B embracing “the cloud”? How do you meet the learners of today where they are, immersed in the digital world?

“We definitely need to adapt our communication strategies to the preferences of the learners to make a bigger impact.” Svetlana Farrell reminisces! “I'm going to date myself. You know, when I was in the dental school all we had to study was textbooks. Nowadays you have digital platforms, you have AI tools, you have educational videos. There's just so much on social media. There's so much content that's available there.” She goes on: “So we've significantly grown our webinar programmes because they attract a lot of broad interest from the profession: from students to very seasoned dentists, hygienists and key opinion leaders and through those digital platforms we design and deliver the content that is relevant to today's profession. In Europe alone we have close to 200 on demand webinars that cover a variety of different topics from office organisation to implant care, from laser periodontal therapy to prevention and anything in between.”

Svetlana warms to her theme. “I believe what's important to that programme is that we first need to understand what is relevant to the audience and then design our digital content to target their interests in order to attract the audience. We also need to adapt content delivery to the preferences of the modern-day learners. A lot of students today, they're used to learning in the bite size information on social media, through digital platforms, through different AI tools. So, we are revisiting how we talk to the students in the dental schools to make it more relevant and impactful.”

From textbook to TikTok perhaps?