Latest / Straumann® ProTalk / Straumann® ProTalk with Dr. Prof. Daniel Buser
Transcript
- 0:13Daniel Buser: You're going to be surrounded very quickly by Did you
- 0:15ever consider not to go into academia?
- 0:18I talked with my wife thoroughly about it and she said at the end, let's go for it.
- 0:22And then I told him yes.
- 0:24It was before we had GBR.
- 0:26So then after 10 years, I told the lady, look, I'm so sorry to tell you,
- 0:30but I cannot place an implant here.
- 0:32Andreas Utz: What is it what you learn from this, sports career
- 0:34for your professional career?
- 0:36What is it what you transfer from it?
- 0:38Daniel Buser: In sports, you learn to win, but you also learn to lose.
- 0:42That means when you have a negative experience, you learn to stand up
- 0:46very quickly and just go ahead.
- 0:48George Räber: When you look back at dentin pathology, What are
- 0:51some of the defining moments?
- 0:53Daniel Buser: We should stop to use this differentiation
- 0:55bone level and tissue level.
- 0:57Because we have to say we have hybrid implants and they will give us a chance
- 1:01to reduce the prevalence of infections.
- 1:03That's the very exciting news we have these days.
- 1:07For all our colleagues,
- 1:12Andreas Utz: welcome to Pro Talks, the path of dentistry,
- 1:15the first episode of our podcast.
- 1:17My name is Andreas Utz, and together with my colleague and friend, George
- 1:21Reber, it's our pleasure to host this series of inspirational conversations.
- 1:27In this podcast, we engage with remarkable personalities in dentistry.
- 1:32We discover their personal development journeys.
- 1:35We talk about their pivotal moments in their career that helped
- 1:39shape them who they are today.
- 1:41We talk about clinical innovation.
- 1:43We talk about technology.
- 1:44And of course, we talk about the future of dentistry as well.
- 1:48For this first episode, I'm very pleased and very honored to have and to welcome
- 1:54a very special guest, Professor Dr.
- 1:57Daniel Buser, Danny.
- 1:59Thanks for being with us.
- 2:00It's a special honor to have you today.
- 2:03I think, Danny, you literally need no introduction or very little introduction.
- 2:07Everybody knows you in implant dentistry, but, you've been for 19 years.
- 2:11You've been the dean and the head professor of the oral surgery department
- 2:17at the University of Bern, and at that time you managed the university to always
- 2:21be one of the top ranked universities in dentistry, in implant dentistry.
- 2:26You created more than 400 publications, which is amazing with your team.
- 2:31You are a key researcher in the field of biomaterials, regenerative therapy,
- 2:37implant surfaces, and many more things.
- 2:39You've been the president for a lot of very important associations, the ITI, the
- 2:45EAO, and just to name a few, many others.
- 2:48And of course, for many people, you've been very influential by teaching, by
- 2:52educating them, and just creating what implant dentistry is actually today,
- 2:57you've been a true pioneer in this.
- 2:58So very happy to have you.
- 3:00Welcome, Danny.
- 3:01Daniel Buser: That's my pleasure.
- 3:02Andreas Utz: Danny, what we try to do is also to create
- 3:04some habits in this podcast.
- 3:06the first habit is we would like to ask every guest to introduce
- 3:10himself or herself in one minute.
- 3:12So who is Danny Boozer in one minute?
- 3:15Daniel Buser: I'm a dentist with a surgical training and have had the
- 3:19pleasure to get into the field of implant dentistry early on in the mid eighties.
- 3:26Professor Schroeder, my mentor, told me it's a complete open
- 3:29field and he was absolutely right.
- 3:32He gave me a lot of guidance and with my team we had a fantastic 35 years
- 3:39of research and clinical applications.
- 3:41George Räber: It's amazing, Donny, 35 years of implantology, you go
- 3:45really back to the starting points.
- 3:48When you look back and in hindsight, what is one element that you think
- 3:53you're most proud of that actually you could contribute to the field?
- 3:58Daniel Buser: Yeah, Professor Schroeder was absolutely right.
- 4:01So I had my most important discussion with him that was in April 85, because he
- 4:09invited me for lunch and I knew now the door is opening, because I knew he's the
- 4:15key person when he has been Dean of the medical faculty, rector of the University
- 4:21of Bern, ITI president, and he had a great network and was a great person.
- 4:29And that's exactly what he said.
- 4:30He said you should go into the academic world and stay at university.
- 4:35And then when I said after one week, yes.
- 4:38It's okay.
- 4:39Then he opened all doors for me, and very important was for sure then when you go
- 4:45into a academic career in Bern and many other places, you need to have at least
- 4:51a one year stay at university abroad.
- 4:54And I'm a convinced team player.
- 4:57So I thought I want to go to the States.
- 5:00And I want to team up with somebody I know very well.
- 5:04This was H. P. Weber.
- 5:05And H. P. Weber just started to do an one year student education in, at
- 5:12Harvard to get an American license.
- 5:15So I said, let's go to Harvard.
- 5:18And then Schroeder said, let's invite the boss of H. P. to come to Basel.
- 5:23It was in 1988, the first ITI Congress in Basel.
- 5:29And so Ray Williams came and after that, he said, you can come tomorrow.
- 5:35I said no, I want to come next year.
- 5:37And this was probably one of the really very important moves to go to Harvard.
- 5:43We did four animal studies there.
- 5:46One I brought from Bern, it was on surfaces.
- 5:50And three on tissue integration and these studies had a huge impact
- 5:55because we knew much more about tissue integration of implants.
- 5:59That was the beginning.
- 6:00And then the second one was GBR.
- 6:03First surgery in 88 before I left for Harvard.
- 6:06And that of course became then the most important bone
- 6:09augmentation technique in the world.
- 6:12George Räber: Did you ever consider not to go into academia?
- 6:15You said before.
- 6:16It took you one week to take the decision and I think it was a
- 6:19very important decision to take.
- 6:22What would have been the alternative?
- 6:23Daniel Buser: See he said you should go into academia and you're
- 6:27gonna have a fantastic career.
- 6:30However, You also need to know the negative aspects of
- 6:35an academic career, he said.
- 6:37First of all, you have to work a lot.
- 6:40Second, you will earn much less money than all your colleagues
- 6:44from your class, because you cannot buy a Mercedes, you cannot buy
- 6:48a house in the next 10 15 years.
- 6:51When you are a professor, then it will equalize, and so on.
- 6:54Thirdly, he said, you're going to be surrounded very quickly by jealousy.
- 7:00This is something you need to be able to stand.
- 7:04And last but not least, he said, are you married?
- 7:08I said, yes.
- 7:09Then he said, okay, then now you go back home.
- 7:13Talk to your wife if she supports that.
- 7:15If she does not support, don't do it.
- 7:17Otherwise you get divorced.
- 7:19And that's why I had a one week break in between.
- 7:22So I talked with my wife thoroughly about it.
- 7:24And she said at the end, let's go for it.
- 7:27And then I told him, yes.
- 7:29I never conceded that because I saw the potential, I was very
- 7:33enthusiastic about implants we just had about one year of experience
- 7:38and then Schroeder made it happen.
- 7:42Andreas Utz: So I think that's beautiful.
- 7:43This seems to be a very pivotal moment in your career and it seems you had
- 7:47a very strong mentor, which I think is beautiful for everyone to have.
- 7:51I think you are very fortunate to have a mentor.
- 7:53Yeah.
- 7:55You mentioned.
- 7:56You are believing in team play, and there's maybe one thing that not
- 7:59everybody knows about you, but you've been really an excellent handball player
- 8:04up to the first National League with the BSV Bern and playing the first
- 8:09league, and in one year you even, managed to win the championship with
- 8:13the team, which was a great achievement.
- 8:16What is it what you learned from this, Sports career for
- 8:19your professional career.
- 8:20What is it?
- 8:20What you transferred from it?
- 8:22Daniel Buser: I think in team sports you learn a lot about team play that
- 8:27you can achieve much more when you have a good teamwork with all the other
- 8:32players in particular in handball.
- 8:34And see, these are six players and the goalkeeper and they
- 8:37have all different roles.
- 8:39And you can only be successful if you have six team players who work with each other.
- 8:44Because you cannot have a Messi and you get a world champion.
- 8:49It's impossible.
- 8:50That is different in soccer probably, huh?
- 8:52And therefore there I learned a lot.
- 8:55And of course in sports.
- 8:57You we have had a very famous federal counselor in Switzerland, Adolf Wogey,
- 9:02who always said, in sports, you learn to win, but you also learn to lose.
- 9:08So when you lose, that means when you have a, let's say, a negative
- 9:12experience, you learn to stand up very quickly and just go ahead, huh?
- 9:16So I think I learned a lot from that one.
- 9:18When I got professorship in Bern and had a chance to build up a
- 9:22team, also to build up a clinic.
- 9:24I told all my senior surgeons, my clinic will be like a handball team.
- 9:30So one is the goalkeeper, one is, I don't know, radiologist, dermatologist,
- 9:34I'm the implant specialist, and so on.
- 9:37And we all have a responsibility.
- 9:41When you do a good job, you get all the applause comes to you, not
- 9:44to me, because I'm not a pyramid.
- 9:46When there is a problem, I want to know it so we can solve it together.
- 9:50And as you said before, we have been very successful in
- 9:53producing a lot of publications.
- 9:55So you need to have excellent team workers.
- 9:59People in your team dedicated and open communication, and
- 10:07that is really most important.
- 10:09It's the same in the business, I'm sure.
- 10:11Same here at Straumann.
- 10:13You need to have ambitious people, but team players.
- 10:17Andreas Utz: Yes, ambitious people.
- 10:18You need a good team.
- 10:19it's amazing if you win and you need to celebrate it.
- 10:22But then it's also if you have negative experiences and
- 10:25you make mistakes every day.
- 10:27What do you learn from it?
- 10:28And how is a mistake making you stronger?
- 10:30Daniel Buser: I have had again, I mentioned many times now,
- 10:33Professor Schroeder, Andre Schroeder was such a great mentor.
- 10:35I remember I had once a surgery, patient was sent to me from Paris.
- 10:40I didn't see the patient before, so I opened up and I realized.
- 10:45I cannot place an implant, there's no bone here, you'll see, it was
- 10:48not carefully examined before.
- 10:50And so when I thought, my goodness, she comes from Paris, she will
- 10:54devastated, so I was thinking, what I'm doing, that was before we had GBR.
- 11:00So then after 10 minutes I told the lady, look, I'm so sorry to tell you,
- 11:04but I cannot place an implant here.
- 11:06It will have no future.
- 11:08It will have a complication in two or three years, the latest.
- 11:11I was very, let's say, depressed, huh?
- 11:14In the evening, Schroeder came and said, Oh, how is everything?
- 11:17Oh, shitty day.
- 11:18Congratulations that the guts to say no, so important sometimes to
- 11:24say no, because that was his advice, or when you do a mistake, everybody
- 11:30makes mistakes, but learn from them, never do the same mistake twice.
- 11:34That was his advice.
- 11:36Andreas Utz: He was
- 11:36Daniel Buser: a great guy.
- 11:37Andreas Utz: You're still active at the BSV Bern and I think what is
- 11:41really impressing me, Dan, is that you also invest a lot of your personal
- 11:45energy and time to help others.
- 11:47Daniel Buser: Yeah.
- 11:48Andreas Utz: And you're also doing a lot of charity work.
- 11:51You're very active in this, what is it what you do there?
- 11:53Daniel Buser: Yeah, in 1999 2000, the Bernese team went into the second league.
- 12:01And of course, we were all depressed about that one.
- 12:04I watched it from the sideline.
- 12:07And I heard from many people, it's about time that Somebody's doing something.
- 12:12Then I met a guy who told me the same, and I said, we should stop to say, we should.
- 12:19We have to do it, so let's engage and bring it back up.
- 12:24So that's how I got involved in that one.
- 12:27And then I learned, I established like a supporters club.
- 12:31And I learned a lot from that supporters club.
- 12:33Later on, I also became a member of Rotary for the same reason.
- 12:37I learned this gives me a chance to get outside of the dental or medical
- 12:41bubble because you are always in a bubble with these professors and so on.
- 12:47And they all talk about medical and dental stuff and so on.
- 12:50You get into the supporters club or Rotary club and then you have their
- 12:54bankers, your finance guy, I don't know, business leaders, entrepreneurs.
- 12:59And that was a huge improvement.
- 13:03to go outside that bubble.
- 13:05That was the first motivation.
- 13:06The second one is a motivation to give a payback because I'm engaged
- 13:12very much in sports and not of course also for the handball team, but
- 13:17actually with the supporters club,
- 13:19help kids to get into sports, huh?
- 13:21And the kids are five to ten years old.
- 13:24The foundation is called Sport for Kids.
- 13:27And I have a strong belief, in particular these days, that these kids are surrounded
- 13:32by iPhones They have to get into sports to learn to interact in a team, huh,
- 13:40with their same age group and so on.
- 13:42They learn so much, and that's not because they should become handball players.
- 13:47We do that, that they go into, I don't know, floorball or
- 13:50football or volleyball, whatever.
- 13:53So this foundation is completely open.
- 13:57sport for kids.
- 13:58And this is such a pleasure to see whenever, let's say a bad day, I go
- 14:02to one of these meetings where you see these 50, five to 10 year old kids
- 14:07running around and they're so joyful.
- 14:10Enjoying the physical moment.
- 14:12Fabulous.
- 14:14Andreas Utz: That's how we do it.
- 14:14Where do you get your energy from?
- 14:18Daniel Buser: That's a good point.
- 14:18I would say the following, you see the when you are in a profession like
- 14:22I was a chairman of a department, you have a lot of meetings and I don't
- 14:27know you get tired to attend, huh?
- 14:30Once a month you have a board meeting of the dental school,
- 14:34you have a board meeting, or you have a meeting of the faculty.
- 14:36That's getting boring after 10, 15, 20 years.
- 14:40So when you get into retirement, if you do a good job, you have to prepare well.
- 14:46And second, then you make a decision, I'm just doing the stuff I love to do.
- 14:51That's most important.
- 14:53And in the sports area, I'm also very engaged in the medical campus in Bern.
- 14:58It's called Insel Campus Bern.
- 15:00That's a payback.
- 15:01But in the sports field, you primarily work with young people.
- 15:06So in sport, when the kids and then the trainees of these kids 25, 30 years old.
- 15:13In the clinic, I'm still working with six other dentists.
- 15:16I'm working the least.
- 15:17I'm the senior consultant.
- 15:18I do my two surgeries a week, but the other dentists are all between 35 and 45.
- 15:26It's a complete different generation, all digital.
- 15:30And I think that gives a lot of energy that you have this collaboration
- 15:35between different age groups
- 15:37So when I, what I learned as a student, I learned some basics, but.
- 15:42Everything we did is not used anymore.
- 15:45This is, we did amalgam fillings, we did prosthesis full dentures, we didn't
- 15:51do anything in implants, we didn't do anything of fixed orthodontics.
- 15:56Of course, all the progress in crown and brain, that is unbelievable.
- 15:59So this is actually a very interesting field, and of course now we have
- 16:03the whole digital workflow that influenced our lives, and we
- 16:07learned so much about the biology.
- 16:09I would say I have a very interesting life, although I work Yeah.
- 16:1360% about,
- 16:16George Räber: So this.
- 16:18touch with the different generations that can make a
- 16:20huge difference to, to, to life.
- 16:22I actually, I brought the book and I'm sure you know this.
- 16:26So when I started with Straumann 20 years ago I got this on my as a welcome present.
- 16:31And people told me, read this.
- 16:33You're one of the authors and It's basically came out 88 and I think it's
- 16:37still holds true to a very big degree.
- 16:41So the basics of implantology are in there and you have been a very
- 16:46important pioneer of implantology.
- 16:48So you've been the one that actually.
- 16:50co developed the first two piece tissue level implant.
- 16:53Then we started to endeavor with the bone level implant, Andreas myself were
- 16:57in that project team together with you.
- 16:59And you have been part of the IXL development team the latest
- 17:02generation of implants that came out.
- 17:06Now, when you look back at dental implantology, what are
- 17:10some of the defining moments?
- 17:11And I know you're very good at also remembering precise dates and places where
- 17:17actually action or decisions were made.
- 17:20What are two or three important moments for you in the
- 17:23development of implantology?
- 17:26Daniel Buser: When I agreed to go for an academic career,
- 17:30and that was in 84 no, 85.
- 17:34Then Schroeder came about a month late and said, ah, at that time we
- 17:38were not using our first names, Dr. Buser we go into the next development.
- 17:43So second generation and this is from Sutter myself and
- 17:47you are the only surgeons.
- 17:49who get the chance, huh?
- 17:51For six months, also used the chance.
- 17:53And then I told them already, at that time already, the decision was made
- 17:58that the implant should not be at that time TPS coated all the way up.
- 18:03That was reduced already, I think in 83, huge discussion
- 18:08among ITI members at that time.
- 18:11actually the German group around the curricula said we have
- 18:15to get rid of the roughness.
- 18:17So then they came and I told them we need implants for crowns and not
- 18:21for for the bar type over danger.
- 18:23So we need an implant that goes out like this.
- 18:26So the first prototype I got from Sutter was in Bern at university was a one
- 18:31piece Tulip shaped with an abutment for cementation that told her, no,
- 18:37France, it has to be two piece, huh?
- 18:40Come back with a connection.
- 18:41And he came back with the Morse taper connection a month later.
- 18:45And that was then where we moved.
- 18:47That was for sure a very important moment because that gave us a chance to go into.
- 18:53Posterior single tooth replacement aesthetics, because we started to do
- 18:57a static implant dentistry, I would say late 80s, although we have figured
- 19:03out, yeah, it's not so ideal with a three millimeter machine neck and
- 19:06so on, but that was very important.
- 19:10Then the next one, as I said before already, we learned a lot among the
- 19:14all these years in the tissue biology.
- 19:17So at that time, Bronnemark implants and Strauman tissue level implants
- 19:22showed a lot of bones ulcerization.
- 19:25Two to three millimeters, bone remodeling.
- 19:28I don't like to call it a bone loss because it's a tissue
- 19:31reaction to the implant.
- 19:34And then you say that, that should be minimized.
- 19:36And then some friends in the United States came up with this
- 19:40platform switching idea around 2000.
- 19:44That's where then we are strong.
- 19:46We should get an implant that has a platform switching concept.
- 19:50And this is then where then the bone level implants, yeah, and
- 19:55there of course we then improved a lot in the aesthetic field.
- 19:59Although this implant was rough all the way up and we were very concerned about
- 20:04that could cause a lot of infections.
- 20:07And therefore 10 years later when we had the paper of Dirks.
- 20:12That was confirmed that actually, and this is a big problem today, that we have
- 20:16a high prevalence of peri implantitis in the field, that this roughness
- 20:21all the way up is a disadvantage.
- 20:24So I remember very well that I had many discussions, also then with Marco
- 20:29Cadola, that actually we go to the second, third, fourth generation, which
- 20:35is then first on those TLX, then TLC.
- 20:38So actually, we have now these hybrid implants, and they will give us a chance
- 20:44to reduce the prevalence of infections.
- 20:46And that's the very exciting news we have these days for all our colleagues.
- 20:51When we started with TLX.
- 20:54four years ago, TLC two years ago, and our experience in
- 20:58patients is extremely positive.
- 21:01George Räber: So it's three very beautiful, I would say, defining moments.
- 21:05First of all, the birth of the tissue level connection, then the birth
- 21:08of platform shift and bone level, and now also the next generation
- 21:12of hybrid implants, as you call it.
- 21:15So it's really spanning over 30 years of implantology.
- 21:18Daniel Buser: I strongly believe today that we should stop
- 21:21to use this differentiation bone level and tissue level.
- 21:24It's completely wrong, because we have to say we have hybrid implants, because
- 21:28they have less risk for infections.
- 21:30And you can use them for both prosthetic options.
- 21:33And then we can stop to say bone level tissue level.
- 21:36And actually that's where we are moving and it will take some time
- 21:40to convince our peers, but they will see all the benefits from that one.
- 21:44And Strauman of course has excellent products and will benefit from that one.
- 21:50George Räber: I can very much relate to this.
- 21:51So I remember.
- 21:52Very nicely, a tough internal conversation where it was about
- 21:57should we make bone level prosthetic matching also tissue level implants.
- 22:01And of course, there was a big fear that there could be confusion, but
- 22:06now that it's possible, I believe that this is a strength of the system And
- 22:10you were also showing this clinically.
- 22:12Daniel Buser: remember when BLX was introduced in Vienna
- 22:15first presentation with Ophir.
- 22:18And I saw him in the hotel and he told me, Oh, Danny, now you
- 22:21have to use my implant and so on.
- 22:23Then you came with him to Bern.
- 22:25And he gave me all these arguments with this better primary
- 22:28stability and so on.
- 22:29And I told him, look off here, I will never use that implant.
- 22:33But when you produce one with a machine neck, you can call it TLX.
- 22:39And then I think that's the strength of Stroman that actually, you
- 22:43brought it back home to Basel.
- 22:45And then two months later, I got the information.
- 22:48We're doing it.
- 22:49We do it.
- 22:50And I think that was then the starting point.
- 22:52And I told him, Cadola, that's just the beginning.
- 22:55The next one is a TLT, we called it.
- 22:57But now it's TLC because it got a different connection.
- 23:00And that's also something I did not mention before.
- 23:03I'm intrigued by the quality of this torque fit connection.
- 23:07You have to see.
- 23:09Morse Taper, then Syn Octa, and then with NNC another connection, and now TorqueFit.
- 23:18And this is based on the technological progress manufacturing is doing.
- 23:24That's why your production plant is in the area where all the watches are
- 23:28produced, because they learn how to do this high precision manufacturing.
- 23:33That's why you need a company who has this quality.
- 23:35And I'm intrigued to see now how this connection really
- 23:39helps us in daily practice.
- 23:42Andreas Utz: Maybe one more question before we, we might look also a little
- 23:45bit how this will evolve in the future.
- 23:47I'm very interested in your view on this one.
- 23:50You mentioned a couple of
- 23:51times the ITI as well.
- 23:52Because there was, the industry and the pioneers in industry,
- 23:55there was, universities like Bern and Freiburg at that time.
- 23:59But the ITI also played a key role.
- 24:01How do you see the contribution of the ITI?
- 24:03Daniel Buser: the ITI is today the leading association in the
- 24:07field of implant education.
- 24:09but also implant research support, so ITI is not doing research, but ITI fellows and
- 24:15related, let's say departments are doing the research and the foundation supports.
- 24:21The ITI foundation, by the way, it was established because of me,
- 24:27because when I wanted to go to Harvard, I told Professor Schroeder.
- 24:32We need research money.
- 24:33And at that time ITI as an association had about 100, 000
- 24:38Swiss francs in the bank account.
- 24:41Then he said, yeah, we have to talk to Fritz Straumann.
- 24:46Come to my home when I'm, I have my birthday, 70th birthday.
- 24:51That was 1988 in April.
- 24:54Fritz will come for a visit two o'clock Friday.
- 24:58So I went to his house and.
- 25:00met him only on distance, never one to one.
- 25:03And so he was very friendly.
- 25:05And then we had a conversation about, I don't know what, and then Audrey
- 25:09said, yeah tell Fritz why you are here.
- 25:12Then I told Fritz, look, I'm going to Harvard and we are doing
- 25:15three animal studies there and we need more research support.
- 25:19So we thought we should establish a Sorden ITI Foundation.
- 25:24And he said, oh, that's very easy.
- 25:27Let's do it.
- 25:29He said because we know how to do that from AO Foundation, we just
- 25:34will have a different approach with the IP rights, he said, and so on.
- 25:38But you will hear from Rudy Mark, that was CEO at that time.
- 25:43And then actually Rudy Ma came to Bern a month later and the
- 25:47ITI Foundation was established.
- 25:49And then at the ITI annual meeting, the two announced that we just established
- 25:54a foundation for research support.
- 25:56It was, at that time, research and Fritz Strahlmann, they made an agreement
- 26:03and Fritz Strahlmann gave, because he said, all the money actually that
- 26:07would have been for André Schroeder, I put in a bank account and that's the
- 26:11starting capital, a million Swiss franc.
- 26:14And then the first 500, 000 they gave to me, to for the preclinical studies,
- 26:19for the studies in at Harvard, I became then, of course, after that, not only
- 26:25a research supporting foundation, also an implant education foundation.
- 26:31That was, that move was made in 92.
- 26:35They asked me to be the education delegate in the board.
- 26:38And then I think that was then refined about two or three times.
- 26:43And then a big important was a meeting in 2002 in Zurich, where then the opening
- 26:49of the membership was decided to go from ITI members to ITI fellows in research
- 26:55and education and membership for GPs.
- 26:58So without educational activities and that's allowed then the growth.
- 27:03And today we have, I think, 26, 000.
- 27:06And I'm strongly convinced that Strauman's success without ITI would have
- 27:12never been like this, but vice versa.
- 27:15When you look at it, when you mention that the Bern is so good, Bern was then top
- 27:1950, Bern is today top 10 university, ITI is number one, Strauman is number one.
- 27:28So it's again teamwork, different roles, but excellent collaboration.
- 27:33One and one gives five.
- 27:35It's very simple,
- 27:37Andreas Utz: simple approach.
- 27:40Danny let's start look a little bit ahead, how this evolves.
- 27:43And, I'm the first thing I'm interested in, you are famous
- 27:46for very clear and scientific.
- 27:49based protocols.
- 27:50I think that's what people admire you because they know you, you do
- 27:53repeatedly what you are good at, what is scientific based and this is how you
- 27:58bring patient after patient to success.
- 28:00Still, I saw you always evolving your protocol.
- 28:03Now recently as an example you enjoy more working digital, as you already mentioned.
- 28:08started to do guided surgery, immediate implant placement at one point.
- 28:13Where do you learn from and, what makes you adapt your, and let's
- 28:17say, develop your protocols?
- 28:20Daniel Buser: When I give my lectures, I always say, what
- 28:22are the objectives of therapy?
- 28:25The primary objectives are successful outcomes.
- 28:29with long term stability.
- 28:31That means you serve your patient.
- 28:34It's not a treatment to maximize my income, to maximize the patient's benefit.
- 28:40So that's the primary objective.
- 28:42And then I would say around 2000, we figured out that our treatment
- 28:47protocols are very demanding, multiple surgeries, lots of swellings, pain,
- 28:52long healing periods at that time.
- 28:54So we said, these are the secondary objectives, that means that we try
- 28:58to improve the technique, but these modified protocols should not, of course,
- 29:06jeopardize the primary objectives.
- 29:08That means the progress is done in small steps, very carefully.
- 29:13I always call them fine tuning of our concepts, learning from studies how the
- 29:19tissue biology is, and then you adapt.
- 29:22So when we had this first discussion on immediate implants, then we
- 29:26have seen tons of complications.
- 29:29And we said, before we start to do that, we have to learn where are the risk
- 29:33factors, or how is the tissue reacting, and What are the selection criteria?
- 29:38ITI on this post extraction place made a tremendous contribution to the field,
- 29:44probably the most important one, at five different consensus conferences, 2003,
- 29:50eight, 13, 18, and last year in Lisbon.
- 29:55published always.
- 29:56And I would say after 13, I felt secure that we can start
- 30:00to do immediate implants.
- 30:02And now we are doing that with enthusiasm in 15 percent of my cases.
- 30:07Works extremely well.
- 30:08So what I tell them, you have to be open minded, but It should be evidence based.
- 30:16So when you are in private office, you should not try everything that is on
- 30:20the internet because then your cost, your patients will be your victims.
- 30:27You rely on associations like ITI because there are the research groups, they do
- 30:32that at universities, they document, they say this worked in our hands,
- 30:36ITI confirms that, then you can move.
- 30:39So you do it carefully.
- 30:41but always open minded.
- 30:43Perfect example is digital.
- 30:45We did our first digital cases.
- 30:47Yeah, 14 years ago, Team Yoda was my collaborator at that time, and of course
- 30:53we did only a few cases, and of course, you made a lot of progress every two
- 30:57years with IDS in Cologne, and then we adapted that one, and today it's
- 31:02complete normality that we do when there is a benefit for the patient, we use
- 31:07digital technology, but not all the time.
- 31:09About 40 percent of my cases are digital now, and 60 percent
- 31:14I do brain guided, everything.
- 31:19Andreas Utz: I think that's a good inroad to the next question I had,
- 31:22you said there's constant evolvement.
- 31:24What we are very often, George, is, from different stakeholders,
- 31:27is that, in a way, let's say implant dentistry came a long way.
- 31:31A lot of things have been innovated.
- 31:33Implants are working now.
- 31:34The basics are established.
- 31:35It's an established technology.
- 31:37A lot of implants are alike and similar.
- 31:40And, there is no innovation possible anymore.
- 31:43no significant innovation possible anymore.
- 31:46How do you look at this statement and how do you see this evolve?
- 31:50Daniel Buser: I have shown many, for many years also a graph, that
- 31:53showed the progress and it of course in the 80s, 90s, very steep and
- 31:58then it started to flatten out, huh?
- 32:00So I would say probably 95 percent of the potential is really, is now done,
- 32:08and we are doing the fine tuning, and we do the fine tuning to have an
- 32:14least invasive protocols, whatever.
- 32:18However, I think, our efforts, and that's ITI's efforts in the future, is that we
- 32:24have to spend more energy on education.
- 32:28Tremendous complications, I'll tell you in the last four weeks I have seen
- 32:33three disaster cases I could never have imagined, one was a case with four missing
- 32:38teeth in the anterior maxilla and one implant was drilled into the root of a
- 32:42canine, done by a certified maxillofacial surgeon, and so I think the challenge
- 32:50we have today is that we have to do it.
- 32:53Increase our efforts in education and we have to tell the dentists, not every
- 32:59dentist must place implants, complete nonsense, in medical field, 5 percent are
- 33:05orthopedic surgeons and they do the hips and the knees and go on and 2 percent
- 33:10are heart surgeons, they do the hearts and eye surgeons, whatever, I think
- 33:14the future, at least in Switzerland, I see that is that the market moves
- 33:20away from single practices because the majority of our educated dentists are
- 33:26females and they don't work for 100%.
- 33:29They want to work 40, 60 percent and have a family as well.
- 33:33So therefore they go into group practices.
- 33:37And I think we have to work hard to really support that, that they say group
- 33:42practice of four or five, we have seven, one of them at least should be top.
- 33:47top educated in surgery, and this person serves the whole
- 33:53group with implant surgery.
- 33:54The others are doing all the other stuff, and when we achieve that one,
- 33:58then the complication goes down.
- 33:59That includes the right selection of implants, hybrid implants, and so on.
- 34:04Because you need to have enough cases per year to develop the
- 34:09education to the experience.
- 34:13Same in medical field, many of the hospitals don't have enough cases to
- 34:17build up the top level of experience.
- 34:19Same in our field.
- 34:22Reduce number of surgeons, they do more per case, and the quality goes
- 34:26George Räber: Talking about new settings in the future of dental practices.
- 34:31So dentistry runs in your family.
- 34:33Yeah.
- 34:33And your daughter is also a dentist.
- 34:35Yes.
- 34:36What did you learn from her in the last couple of years?
- 34:39Daniel Buser: Yeah, she's a, she wanted to become a medical doctor.
- 34:42And she worked actually in my department in the reception to earn some money.
- 34:47I always told my kids, you can earn your own money so you learn how that works.
- 34:52And then after that one also she came and said, I think I'm going
- 34:55to switch over to dentistry.
- 34:58That's your decision.
- 35:00George Räber: Be my guest.
- 35:00Daniel Buser: Don't tell anybody that I forced you to do actually my
- 35:03postdocs told her, why don't you do dentistry because you work, you love
- 35:08to work with your hands, whatever.
- 35:09And you have a father with such an influence.
- 35:11So then I told her, that's great, but I give you a challenge, don't go into
- 35:17the surgical field because otherwise you never get out of my shadow and you're
- 35:21always the daughter of Professor Pulser.
- 35:24You'll have to do prosthodontics, that could be actually great, because
- 35:28then we can continue to work together.
- 35:30I would say half of my elderly patients are treated with her.
- 35:34She's doing, she tells me what to do actually, we do the planning, we
- 35:38do the digital planning, she's doing everything, I just, then we see the
- 35:43position, everything, we agree on it, and then she produces the surgical stand.
- 35:47Then.
- 35:48I do.
- 35:48So I learned a lot from her in this digital field, as with the others, with
- 35:52Manrique, Fonseca, Samir, and so on.
- 35:55She takes care of them because many of them are actually elderly
- 35:59patients, in the retirement age.
- 36:01And then when there is a tooth loss, then I get a new patient.
- 36:05She refers to me.
- 36:07Andreas Utz: I see you really enjoy this, working with Manrique, also with
- 36:10Samuel, and with your daughter, so that really gives you energy, I realize.
- 36:14We see a lot of, the next generation coming in, being male or female, very
- 36:18talented young people that wanting to become great implantologists.
- 36:23What is the advice you would give to these people?
- 36:26Daniel Buser: apply for ITI scholarship, because that is a great program of ITI
- 36:31ITI scholarship, I think they have now 35 centers around the globe in my department
- 36:37I had 32 ITI scholars, many of them are good friends and I know how they are
- 36:41doing family wise, how many kids they have, I hear all the time, fantastic.
- 36:46There you learn then also to the ITI side and that gives
- 36:50them an entrance into the ITI.
- 36:53Many of these ITI scholars are today leading researchers.
- 37:01One was Simon Jensen, he's a full professor in Copenhagen, and so on.
- 37:05And this is great.
- 37:06I just, education, And become active inside ITI, go into the section
- 37:14leadership teams and of course they, you normally walk up the ladder, you
- 37:18might become education delegate or you are in charge of an ITI study club
- 37:25and those who are really capable then they move up very easily and then they
- 37:29go to the international committee.
- 37:31Some of these ITI scholars today are now ITI presidents, see, that's how it is.
- 37:36So as ITI is for sure a very important association for these
- 37:43top, top talented youngsters.
- 37:47Andreas Utz: Maybe last question before we come to the closing questions,
- 37:51also for George and myself, for the past 20 years, you've been a mentor.
- 37:55George, you mentioned it.
- 37:55We developed the bone level implant together, the first generation
- 37:58of the bone level at Straumann together, and you've been always
- 38:01a great supporter for us, Danny.
- 38:04Now we start a new endeavor with this podcast series.
- 38:07What advice would you give us for this podcast series?
- 38:10Daniel Buser: Yeah, let me do the following.
- 38:11I gonna listen to the next three or four podcasts and I give you a feedback.
- 38:16So I think we had a very good beginning.
- 38:18I think it's very important.
- 38:19I learned.
- 38:20That podcasts are actually becoming much, are very popular.
- 38:24I'm not driving a lot with my car, but I know for many people are
- 38:28driving long distances and they always are listening to podcasts.
- 38:32I think that's great and I think that's a very nice tool The storytelling
- 38:38is so important in education.
- 38:41Like what we said, we're going to go now into this hybrid implant.
- 38:45This is a storytelling, which is a no brainer story because it's so logical.
- 38:50But we have to Deliver the message and podcast, bring it to the recipients, to
- 38:56the customers or to the colleagues in ITI.
- 38:59And I'm sure podcasts are very important.
- 39:03Actually much probably have much more value than a short post on Instagram
- 39:09at the very time, very superficial.
- 39:12And many times it's complete garbage, whenever I see stuff
- 39:16there, I can only scratch my hands.
- 39:18What the heck are they doing?
- 39:20Andreas Utz: And I have to say, I'm impressed how active you are on
- 39:22Instagram and what a strong profile you built throughout the last five years.
- 39:26Daniel Buser: No, of course, I'm still, I think, I have a very famous patient,
- 39:31I don't want to mention the name, you know it, and when I retired, I had a
- 39:36dinner with him and then he told me, look Danny, you have to leave your department
- 39:41because that will never work, you have to be so successful, you have to go
- 39:45into a private setting and you have to continuing with continuing education.
- 39:52deliver the message to the young generation.
- 39:54You have done a lot with undergrad education, postgrad, go for
- 39:59continuing education, because it's so valuable for this young
- 40:03generation, 30, 35 year old generation.
- 40:06And that's what I'm doing.
- 40:08And that's why we established and during the pandemic also this Instagram
- 40:12account and actually a huge we have some posts when it's a little emotional.
- 40:17We did one when professor Schroeder had the 20th.
- 40:21This day, he passed away 20 years ago, 2004.
- 40:24I think 48, 000 were watching this.
- 40:28See, I gave him all the tributes.
- 40:31It's amazing.
- 40:32It's very emotional.
- 40:34That's how we use social media.
- 40:38Or with my daughter also.
- 40:41Everybody wants to watch that.
- 40:43So we're gonna do a few during the Christmas break.
- 40:46I know already what we are doing.
- 40:49Upcoming meetings, master courses, our international symposium next November.
- 40:54You're gonna love it.
- 40:55I just told Marcus that detailed program is very excited about it.
- 41:00Andreas Utz: That's probably also a secret of life, success is not happening by
- 41:02accident, there's a plan behind, right?
- 41:04Daniel Buser: you see my activity as surgeon the agreement I have is,
- 41:08we're gonna make a decision always in September, if I, continue in another year.
- 41:13I have no longterm plan.
- 41:14It all depends on my health situation.
- 41:17I spend a lot of time with my grandchildren now, do a lot of
- 41:21traveling with my wife and every set September we make a decision.
- 41:25Yes.
- 41:26Of course, my dental assistant tells me we do another five years and she tells
- 41:30me this every year now, every five years.
- 41:33She wants me to continue.
- 41:34I said, yeah, we'll see.
- 41:36So we go another year and then probably another year and then we
- 41:40have to stop the right time point.
- 41:42I said, don't overdo it.
- 41:43And you helped me to make that decision this year.
- 41:46I want to have feedback, very open minded.
- 41:48Perfect.
- 41:49George Räber: That brings us already to the last two questions
- 41:51and it's going to be a routine.
- 41:54We're going to ask every guest the same questions.
- 41:56So the first one is, what's your vision of dentistry for in 10 years from now?
- 42:01What do you believe will dentistry look like and what are the biggest changes?
- 42:05Daniel Buser: I think we have to differentiate between industrialized
- 42:08countries and industrializing countries.
- 42:11In Western Europe, in North America, we see, of course, this
- 42:16demographic change and there geriatric dentists or gerontology
- 42:20will play a very important role.
- 42:22Of course, the elderly population is much fitter than 30, 40 years ago,
- 42:28and they don't want to go into food.
- 42:31I think there will play a very important role.
- 42:33But when you go then to Southeast Asia, of course, India, the population is very
- 42:38young, so they're completely different.
- 42:40And there, probably, dentistry is not so well developed.
- 42:44There is your great potential of stramen, because there will be a
- 42:48tooth loss, because they first have to really learn for the These huge
- 42:53populations, how important home care is and dental hygiene, whatever.
- 43:00So I think we have these two different groups.
- 43:05Digital will play an important role, but we will not have treatments by robots.
- 43:11Complete nonsense, we don't think so.
- 43:15When I go and do a treatment, and I have all these IDI scholars coming
- 43:20to assist me, and we are running into an unexpected situation.
- 43:26No robot will ever handle that, you need an experienced
- 43:29surgeon to handle the problem.
- 43:32They're always impressed how we solve the problems.
- 43:34Therefore, Digital dentistry will help us tremendously to do a better job,
- 43:40but it will not replace the surgeon.
- 43:41George Räber: convinced.
- 43:42I'm very much interested in that topic.
- 43:44Daniel Buser: Yeah, KIA will be important too because in the treatment
- 43:47planning, when I see what you can do with your systems, that means
- 43:50we say we would have a three unit bridge and boom, you get by KIA.
- 43:55Again, when you modify, say when the prosthodontist tells me that's where
- 43:59the implant should be from a prosthetic point of view, I tell him, look,
- 44:03that will not work from a biological point, we have to find a compromise.
- 44:07See, so you need both expertise, a team to optimize that so the patient has an
- 44:13excellent chance for long term success.
- 44:16That's how it is.
- 44:17George Räber: Last question.
- 44:18So when you could invite anyone either living or not living anymore
- 44:23to a evening long fireside chat?
- 44:26Who would that be?
- 44:27H. M. Oh my goodness.
- 44:28Daniel Buser: That's a tough question now, I see.
- 44:30Could
- 44:33be in the field of of medical or dental yeah, but could also mean
- 44:38the field of handball, actually.
- 44:40Probably I would But in the field of handball, I was
- 44:44probably one of the top guys.
- 44:46Either the French superstar car or the, or or the Finnish superstar for a dinner.
- 44:53That would be fantastic.
- 44:54Yes.
- 44:55In the dental field or in the medical field that.
- 44:59Yeah, in the dental field, I know the many, all of them, I know, in my field,
- 45:03that is probably not so interesting because I can have this thing anyhow.
- 45:06But in the medical, yeah, why not a Nobel Prize winner in a field,
- 45:11but I cannot give you a name now.
- 45:14That would be very tough questions, yeah.
- 45:16Andreas Utz: But I'm sure the evening with Karabatić would be
- 45:18very enjoyable and very interesting.
- 45:21He has, he's been also a living legend, right?
- 45:23Absolutely.
- 45:24Daniel Buser: It will be a
- 45:25Andreas Utz: great evening.
- 45:26Daniel Buser: Yeah, these old people have achieved tremendous achievements.
- 45:32Andreas Utz: With this, we are at the end.
- 45:34Danny, thanks a lot for the conversation.
- 45:36I hope we are on time.
- 45:38Inspirational insights that you provided to us thanks a lot for
- 45:42being with us and to all our.
- 45:44Guests, thanks a lot for joining the first episode and please look forward
- 45:47for many more episodes to come.
- 45:50You can see these episodes either on Apple podcast, you can see it on Spotify,
- 45:55you can also see it at Instagram.
- 45:56So whenever there are questions or comments you want to leave, please
- 45:59feel free to do we're also happy to answer the questions and are happy
- 46:02to evolve and improve and are always happy to have an interaction with you.
- 46:06Thanks a lot for joining our first episode.
- 46:08Thanks, George, for co hosting
- 46:10Daniel Buser: Thank you.