The speaker lets you see your dental visit from a different point of view. The height and the contact between our teeth determines the position of our jaw. This will make us look younger or older. At the same time this position of the jaw, our bite, can be linked to different muscular and joint problems in the head and neck region. It can be the cause of a grinding or clenching problem, bruxism, which by itself can generate a bad sleeping pattern, headaches, loss of hard and soft tissue surrounding our teeth and...makes us look old. In order to protect our teeth we can wear a nightguard to sleep, this will avoid extreme wear and fracture of our teeth and in many cases will take away head and neck pains.
In the case our bite is lost, we must rehabilitate our mouth using the latest technologies.Nowadays this is done in a digital way, we also apply augmented reality using the hololens. The prosthodontist must work as a team with different dental specialists to achieve a maximal result.
As a dentist we must see our patients in a more holistic way, we must give an extra dimension to the dental visit. Dirk is not your typical dentist. He had a quiet life in Antwerp, but decided to expand his vision, so he moved to Barcelona in 2002. In 2006, he went to live in Asturias, in the north of Spain. He has not stopped flying on a regular basis to Belgium to keep contact with his kids, family, and friends, and he is still affiliated with two dental clinics in Antwerp. Dirk is also a member of the apoQlar Medical Advisory Board, who are developing surgical and dental applications for the Microsoft Hololens.


In between his work and the travelling, he still has found some time to give some lectures all over Europe (Nice, Valencia, Dublin, Bilbao). He has cases published in text books and on the site of TRI Dental Implants in Switzerland. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx