International keynote speaker: Emeritus Professor Frauke Müller
This year’s Symposium will be opened by our international keynote speaker, Emeritus Professor Frauke Müller of the University of Geneva, who is our 2026 Sir Thomas K Sidey Visiting Professor.
Frauke Müller, Prof em. Dr. med. dent. Dr. hc. FDS RCSEd (ad hom)
University of Geneva, Switzerland
Division of Gerodontology and Removable Prosthodontics
Frauke Müller is Professor Emeritus for gerodontology and removable prosthodontics at the University Clinics of Dental Medicine at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Professor Müller has been President of various learned societies. She co-edited the ITI Treatment Guide no 9 on “Implant therapy in the Geriatric Patient” and the textbook “Oral Healthcare and The Frail Elder”. For many years, she was Associate Editor of the Journal of Oral Rehabilitation and Gerodontology.
Professor Müller is an honorary member of the European College of Gerodontology, the BSSPD and the International Team of Implantology (ITI). She was awarded the IADR Distinguished Scientist Award twice, in 2013 in Geriatric Oral Research and in 2023 in Research in Prosthodontics and Implants. In 2019 she received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Thessaloniki. In 2024 she received an honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and an honorary Professorship of the University of Chulalongkorn in Bangkok. She is a member of the Swiss Academy for Medical Sciences. Her research activity is mainly related to gerodontology, oral function as well as complete and implant prosthodontics.
Presentation title: Challenges in oral health care in super‑aging societies
As populations continue to age, increasing life expectancy and improved oral healthcare have resulted in more individuals retaining their natural dentition well into advanced age. While this represents a major public health success, it also presents new challenges for prosthodontic care.
Although tooth loss is still a reality for elderly and very elderly patients, it is increasingly occurring at an age when physiological signs of ageing, frailty and morbidity must be taken into account in prosthetic care. Age-appropriate dentures must also be tailored to the patient's general state of health and socio-economic context; and the patient's motivation, the wishes of their family and their ability to endure dental interventions must also be taken into account. Declining vision, sense of smell and sense of touch, as well as increasingly reduced manual dexterity in old age, require dentures to be designed to be simple, stable and hygienic. Implants are an option but require close monitoring and “retrograding” along with advanced loss of autonomy. As a general rule, extensive changes to dentures or the fabrication of new ones should be avoided in multimorbid patients, as reduced neuroplasticity in old age means that reduced adaptability must be expected. Here, digital technologies and artificial intelligence are transforming prosthodontic care. Digital workflows, data-driven treatment planning, and AI-assisted decision support offer new opportunities to improve diagnostic accuracy, personalise treatment, enhance preventive strategies, and ultimately support healthy aging while maintaining oral function and quality of life.
Schedule, programme and abstracts
The full schedule and the programme and abstracts book will be made available to attendees the week of the event.