A Fresh & Forward Thinking Forum: Dental 360, The Inaugural Event

With the promise of an insightful dive into the industry’s future, Dental 360 took place on the 10th October at the Royal College of Physicians, co-hosted by 32Co and the British Orthodontic Society.

Setting out to defy the expectations of a traditional dental conference, the symposium explored the fast-evolving intersection of healthcare, technology, and patient care. Led by a curated lineup of clinical and medical specialists, as well as renowned industry experts, the programme offered insights into emerging fields poised to shape the future of dentistry.

Dentists, practice owners and group owners were all among the delegation, gathering to engage in the conversation, exchange ideas, and foster impactful connections across the day.

The Day at a Glance

Dr. Sonia Szamocki, Founder & CEO of 32Co, kicked off the seminars with a compelling session on scaling specialist care. She revealed that nearly 70% of patients struggle to access the specialist treatments they need - and demonstrated how 32Co is changing that by equipping clinicians with the tools and technology to collaborate directly with the world’s leading specialists. The impact is already clear in orthodontics: while 40 million people in the UK live with malocclusion, there are only around 1,000 practising orthodontists. 32Co empowers general dentists to deliver clear aligner plans guided by specialist orthodontists, making high-quality, expert-led care accessible to more patients than ever before.

The morning continued with a seminar by Prof. Ama Johal and Dr. Usman Qureshi, who shared insights and learnings from their work on the world’s most challenging orthodontic aligner cases, with a series of example-based presentations focused on achieving predictable orthodontic outcomes in treatments.

Following an invigorating break for coffee and networking, the programme expanded into related healthcare topics. Johnathan Wolf, Founder and CEO of ZOE and host of the ZOE Science and Nutrition Podcast, shared his journey leading the world’s largest nutrition study and insights into gut health, offering learnings in scaling impactful research. Jonathan’s talk also went on to demonstrate the life-changing results of ZOE’s personalised nutrition program achieved through their simplified microbiome test.

Dr. Dan Brook, Medical Director of Ezra Health introduced his AI-powered preventive MRI work, illustrating how technology is helping detect cancer earlier than ever before. This fast-growing screening treatment is evolving into holistic healthcare, an area that dentistry is also expanding into.

After lunch, the afternoon seminars commenced with a talk by Prof. Ama Johal and Dr. Richard Grindrod from Aerox Health, who explored the role of dental professionals in sleep medicine and how we can positively impact patients’ overall health through treatments for snoring and obstructive sleep apnoea.

The thought-provoking sessions continued with a seminar by Jenny Doyle from The Clinic Holland Park and Dr. Suganthan Mahalingam, covering dynamic patient communication strategies to support navigating complex or sensitive topics, such as establishing and building trust, and opening the dialogue around aesthetics without causing offence.

The day concluded with a seminar on AI by James Huckle, former Olympian and builder of over $100m in AI tech equity, who spoke about the wide range of AI tools currently available to support dentists, practice owners and group owners in transforming traditional workflows and elevating their practices. With working examples and live demonstrations, the session left guests in awe of the possibilities to save time, money and improve efficiency.

Following a full day of seminars, delegates retired to the Council Chamber to continue the conversation among their pers, and connect further with the speakers from the day.
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“With Dental 360, we set out to create a day that wasn’t just another dental event, but one that introduced new ideas shaping the future of healthcare: from how we think about preventive care to how we eat. Bringing our growing community together in person marked an exciting new chapter for 32Co, and it was inspiring to see dentists, clinicians, group operators and owners from across the country come together to explore what the future of the industry could look like, as we continue to drive for innovation and progress. We're deeply grateful to the British Orthodontic Society, who co-hosted this event, and proud to further our alignment with such a respected institution."
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Dr. Sonia Szamocki, Founder & CEO of 32Co

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"Dental 360, was a great day, highlighting the potential of different work flows, technology and AI on orthodontic and broader healthcare provision.It was also a fantastic opportunity for dentists who undertake orthodontics to learn of the broad educational opportunities that come with membership of the BOS. Understanding the scope of contemporary orthodontics with a variety of appliances and approaches helps patients achieve optimal outcomes, whether their case can be successfully treated with aligners or merits specialist referral."
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Dr. Robbie Lawson, President of the British Orthodontic Society

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