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implants0112

editorial I I 03implants1_2012 _Extremepointsofviewtamperwiththeirseeminglyconvincingadvantageofmakinghard facts appear as simple, clear and understandable pieces of information. Extreme points of view, however, also have one distinct disadvantage: They are usually simply wrong. Currently,oralimplantologyiscertainlyundergoingacomprehensiveprocessofchange.The “implantological knowledge” of past decades has been turned upside down by the rush of de- velopments and innovations of the past few years. Nothing seems to be way it once used to be. In the light of tremendous changes such as the following, falling for extreme points of view is a seemingly obvious response: Not only do whole treatment philosophies clash, but there is also a gaping conflict between the generations. Naturally, younger implantologists are attracted by new, digital opportunities introduced to our discipline, whereas older colleagues tend to rely on proven and conventional methods and usually focus on surgical solutions. Now, if we decided to name the former “com- puter game implantology” and the latter “medieval implantology” as a consequence, of course wewouldreactinanextremewayinbothofthetwocasesand,moreimportantly,wewouldalso be wrong. Instead, we should seek to balance our points of view to find answers to the most pressing issuesofourdiscipline.Inthistune,findingacommonlanguagewhichcansatisfybothofthese positionswouldundoubtedlybehelpful.Apossibleimpetusforstartingthequestforacommon language is provided by the initiative “Quality-driven implantology” by the German Society for Dental Implantology (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zahnärztliche Implantologie, DGZI). It was launched only this year and will be the common theme for all future activities of the DGZI, in- cluding this issue of implants, the recently relaunched DGZI curriculum and our annual DGZI conference in the fall. Today I should also like to mention that we will meet for our annual conference in the Hanseatic City of Hamburg on 5 and 6 October, 2012. In this city of rich tradition, the DGZI, the oldestprofessionalsocietyforimplantologyinEurope,willcontributetofindinganswerstothe questions resulting from the recent changes in our discipline—from your points of view. With best regards, Dr. Georg Bach Extreme points of view Dr Georg Bach