I am glad to keep my colleagues informed and provide information regarding the first Georgian-Armenian Binational Dental Congress that was held May 22-23 in Yerevan and May 25-26 in Tbilisi.
The founders of the Binational Congress are GIA – Georgian Implantological Association President Prof. Vladimer Margvelashvili and DERA – Dental Education and Reaserch Association Preident – Dr. Lazar Yessayan, being at the same time the national chairs of the organizing committees.
The Binational Congress united GIA – Georgian Implantological Association, GSA – Georgian Stomatological Association, DERA – Dental Education and Reaserch Association. The congress was held with the support of Tbilisi State University and Yerevan State Medical University.
The Congress was a multidisciplinary conference that invited world speakers and offered a collaborative platform between the dentists, dental students, doctoral students and people from academia of Georgia and Armenia to collaborate. The highlights of scientific program were interesting lectures on dental stem cells, dental implantology, importance of oral hygiene and preventive dentistry.
It is important to note, that five Georgian Speakers, Prof. Vladimer Margvelashvili, Dr. Galaktion Makhviladze, Dr. Zurab Gersamia, Dr. Tamar Baramidze and Dr. Mariam Margvelashvili were presenting their scientific presentations.
Together with the scientific program the Congress featured a social program that offered unique opportunity to discover highlights of Yerevan and Tbilisi. The Georgian delegation first visited Matenadaran, then joined the tour of Cognac Factory and in the end the beautiful church of Etchmiadzin. The Armenian delegation in Georgia explored the amazing land of Kakheti, starting with Sighnaghi and Monestary of Bodbe and going all the way to Alexandre Chavchavadze house-museum.
We hope that this congress will serve as a strong tie between these two nations. Being guided by the main goal of improving quality and standards in dentistry, we are also aiming to start our activities on the analysis of situation in the sphere of dental care in these two countries to detect common professional problems and work on finding solutions.
I would like to thank all conference attendees. I would particularly thank those attendees who travelled in both cities of Yerevan and Tbilisi putting out 6 days and contributing to the success of the first meeting. I would also like to express my appreciation to the sponsor of the Georgian Session Sprint Dental.
Dr. Mariam Margvelashvili DDS, MSc, PhD
Speaker and Member,
Congress Organizing Committe