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ePaper created 2015-03-04, 10:43:31 | version 1.33.01
I interview DrVollmer’smaindutyfortheDGZI(since1996,in collaborationwithDGZIsecretaryKatrinMielke)islo- cated in his dental office in Wissen, Germany. As First Vice-President and Treasurer of the DGZI, Prof.* Dr Rolf Vollmer (*Faculty of Oral and Dental Medicine CairoUniversity)isresponsibleforestablishinginter- national contacts and expanding DGZI activities be- yond the national borders. In this interview, he offers insightsintohisinvolvementinoralimplantologyand the DGZI. _When did you become interested in dental im- plantology,andwhatwasthestatusofthisinnovative therapythen? Dr Vollmer: I sat the dental examination in 1977. During my studies, which I completed in Bonn, the maxillofacialsurgeons,Profs.E.KruegerandS.Lehn- ert, were not particularly skilled in the field of dental implantology. As students, we were taught that oral implantology is a little-used therapy applied in spe- cial cases only, for example when a singer or actor wanted to continue the last years of his or her career. When I took over the practice of my father, who died in 1976, I found that we had a significant number of patients with complete dentures. We could only pro- vide dentures in the edentulous mandible with often unsatisfactory results using also the conventional manner without any stabilisation. I personally dis- liked the grinding of healthy teeth and I was already involved in dental implantology (in 1978) at an early stage. Atthattime,furthertraininginthefieldoforalim- plantology, which was then not yet recognised by universities as an advanced or specialised field of dentistry, consisted mainly of courses offered by in- dividual companies. These were, for example, the LinkowseminarswithProf.HansL.Grafelmann(Bre- “DGZI and its training programme is internationally highly regarded” Author_Markus Brakel, Germany 38 I implants1_2015 The German Association of Dental Implantology (DGZI)istheoldestdentalprofessionalorganisation forimplantologyinEuropeandthusoneofthelead- ers in its field. The association, which has around 4,000 members, is an important part of dental im- plantologyhistoryandfirmlyrootedwithdiversein- ternational contacts. DGZI has established co-op- eration with dental technicians and advanced im- planttrainingfordentists.Thefurtherdevelopment oftheassociationismainlythetaskofitsexecutive board. In this issue,we present the FirstVice-Pres- ident,Dr RolfVollmer (Wissen,Germany). Prof. Dr Rolf Vollmer