Harald Wanetschka / pixelio.de

The ZoRA congress in Weimar is a congress for women in dentistry established by the Liberal Association of German Dentists (Freier Verband Deutscher Zahnärzte). This year the congress has taken place the third time and we could register a lot of dentists from all over Germany, some of them are participants from the beginning and about 80 % have already joined the first time – the network is growing.

In autumn 2009: The first ZoRA congress in Weimar has even finished when Dr. Kerstin Blaschke received a phone call in her dental office: “Good day, I am Professor Rainer Buchmann”, the caller said. “Ah”, Blaschke answered, “and how could I help you”? “I like to take part at the next ZoRA Forum, Buchmann said. Your idea is great”, he said. “I have four daughters and I know what I’m talking about.” And because Prof. Buchmann is not only a committed but also a recognized periodontist, since a long time teaching at Düsseldorf University and also publishing to this theme, he has realy participated at this year’s Weimar Forum – with his lecture “periodontal medicine” and a “hands-on-Workshop”.

Female dentists have met the third time for their own congress from all over Germany: What has started in Travemünde in 2008 will be continued by the competence network ZoRA as the “Weimar Forum” since 2009. The concept: during this nationwide congress women should get the opportunity to make useful contacts, to exchange experiences and finally to move the network idea to their region. The reason that this congress is especially addressed to women is because they still have to bear the dual burden of profession and family and consequently have to manage their own difficulties. Particular in the West of Germany a lot of dentists feel left alone with their problems.

High praise was spent for professional lectures such as “important rudiments of emergency treatment to children”, Professor Dr. Roswitha Heinrich-Weltzien, University of Jena. And “options of implantology for conservative dentistry”, Dr. Petra Rauch, Melsungen, and Dr. Dana Weigel, Berlin about “aesthetic reconstructions as a part of functional therapy”. Economic topics have been outsourced into workshops to suit individual.

Wide net of supporters

Despite of all the women power men are indeed welcome – not just as speaker but also as participant. “Four young men, interested in the forum’s offer, visited the workshops”, refers Dr. Blaschke, Vice president of the Freier Verband Deutscher Zahnärzte. “We are getting more and more support”. This was also made obvious by the words of welcome at the beginning of the congress. The finance minister of Thüringen, Marion Walsmann, has come to give the women encouragement “symbolically”, as she said. Women are still at a disadvantage compared to men. The President of the dental chamber of Thüringen, Dr. Andreas Wagner, presented a current survey from Bavaria whereupon 93 % of the asked women expressed their feeling of double burden of profession and family as “heavy” or “very heavy”. The degree of selfexploitation is enormous, cited Wagner one of the women. His advice: Take part! Participate actively in dental politics; it’s the only way to change.

In the meantime ZoRA congress has established; the opening congresses in 2008 and 2009 were finding congresses, but now we have arrived, so Dr. Blaschke, published in an interview in “Der Freie Zahnarzt” 10/2010. A lot of new dentists have visited the Weimar congress, this shows that our network idea has been forwarded. Many participants came with their family, men took care of their children and in the social program all got together again.

For the next year’s Forum Dr. Blaschke would be pleased to welcome more younger women in dentistry to give them new impulses for their liberal dental practice in future. ZoRA would not be unactive until the next Weimar Forum. During the coming months “mentoring” will be an issue which has to be worked out and to use the ZoRA-website as communication platform we have a lot of necessities to do. This communication platform should be made useful for participants to be able to exchange anonymized patient affairs as well as to put on legal formalities and professional affairs. Temporarily we are working on checklists to topics such as establishment – important points, what is to be done? Or I am pregnant – what is necessary to know and to do? It is easily conceivable for the women to put their mentoring wishes and offers on the website. Furthermore we like to continue the impuls speeches of the Weimar congresses: last year Boris Grundl, motivation coach, has joined the Forum; together with him we provide a two day workshop in Potsdam middle of November. Furthermore we are in dialogue with the this year’s speaker Peter Brandt for a course of public speaking (rhetoric).

Here some statements of participants:

• It’s a pity that only a few young women have joined the Weimar Forum in this year and it would be great if more men would join the Forum, too. It is a good place for networking and for my dental office I have received good advices for dental aesthetics and the theme bisphosphonates. During my studies I haven’t heard enough; it was very good explained by the speaker.

• I have participated in Weimar also last year and I can say that the congress in this year is more open and more constructive. That such a number of people have joined shows that the good idea and the network is making progress.

• A girlfriend asked me to participate in Weimar. At first the program didn’t convince me; I usually visit professional development to very specific themes. But then I liked it because of the different themes and the speeches were not stolid at all. So I could get a lot of good ideas for daily life. We visited the workshop “success” and received advices for parodontitis therapy as well as the impulse presentation for rhetoric and body language; this was really great. It’s nice that Weimar is not a big congress, because of this we had a community spirit, such a feeling just as “we are between ourselves”.

We are looking forward to the new Weimar Forum which will take place on 23 September 2011 with new ideas for the women network ZoRA and hoping to welcome more young women in dentistry (men are also welcome) to give them professional support to organize their future work in liberal dental practice and family at once.