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| interview Digital smile design meets orthodontics: Full-day course closes second EAS Congress Interview with Dr Christian Coachman By Nathalie Schüller, DTI According to Dr Christian Coachman, orthodontics is a specialty that should be integrated into digital smile design (DSD) and it is essential to understand the impor- tance of this. For better DSD, it is necessary to understand orthodontics as a specialty, firstly, to know which cases could benefit from tooth movement and how, secondly, to convince the restorative dentist about this benefit, and lastly, to help the dentist educate and motivate the patient about this option, to increase case acceptance. Because to Coachman aligners are the future when it comes to moving teeth, coming to Venice in Italy for the second Congress of the European Aligner Society (EAS) was a good opportunity to participate in an event dedi- cated to aligners and orthodontics. He presented a post- congress course on DSD and aligners, with a whole-day programme of lectures and a live patient demonstration. Dr Coachman, you just arrived in Venice, so thank you for taking the time to sit and talk with me. I’d like to start by asking how you got started in dentistry and later the DSD concept. I started in dentistry because my whole family is in dentistry. My father, my uncle, my grandfather are all dentists. I decided just to follow in that line. My father never pushed me to follow in his tracks. As a teenager, I never went to his office or thought of becoming a den- tist; it was more a last-minute decision for me to try dental school. My dream was to become an architect and designer, but for some reason, I decided that I would probably have a better life if I was to become a dentist. I don’t remember why I picked dentistry over architecture; it feels now as if I just ended up in dental school. Anything related to art and visual skills always attracted me and, somehow, maybe my intuition, lineage, guided me to decide to go into dentistry. So I picked dentistry without knowing that I could become an architect of the smile and it took me a few years to actually find myself happy in the dental profession. At first, I thought I had made a mistake. I did not enjoy the beginning of my dental studies, and once I finished dental school, I went on to art school because I realised I did not want to become a dentist, but in my first year of art school and with teachers explaining the principles of 46 ortho 1 2018 harmony, proportion, design, arrangement and illusion, the first thing that came to my mind was the smile. I real- ised I could be an artist of the smile and went back to dentistry and started DSD. One never knows how destiny will guide you. One just has to trust that everything hap- pens for a reason. It seems that many dentists specialised in restorative dentistry have either studied or worked as dental technicians. Do you think it is a prerequisite for becoming a great restorative dentist or is it enough if one works with a talented dental technician? It is impossible to be a good restorative dentist without understanding dental technology. Many dental techni- cians have gone to dental school to become dentists. The difference for me is that I was both, but decided to keep working as a dental technician. Most people become dentists who are also dental technicians, but I did the opposite. It gave me the opportunity to work with many great dentists and partner them as a technician. In this way, I worked with most of my mentors and that was an interesting decision because it made me unique. Even though I could work as a dentist, I prefer to work as a technician for a dentist. This knowledge and understanding of the other’s spe- cialty allows for better and faster communication. We can create plans together at a different level.