The original competition, organized by the dental material manufacturing firm Micerium has, for the last two years, developed into an international championship. The goal of the competition is to popularize the anatomic stratification technique pioneered by prof. Dr. Lorenzo Vanini, at the undergraduate level. The first competition was held 5 years ago. Functioning as a regional championship of the Czech Republic, 4 local universities took part. In the following years, the firm encouraged the spread of the contest outside the borders of the Czech Republic to other Eastern Europe countries. As a result, from 2008 the challenge became international in scope with the participation of Lithuania, Poland and from Hungary, the Dental Faculty of the Semmelweis Medical University of Budapest. In 2009 the University of Szeged, Faculty of Dentistry also applied, organizing the local round within the „bounds” of the Esthetic Dentistry curriculum, available to both Hungarian and English speaking students. Every student who applied for the course (4th and 5th year), got a chance to test themselves by handing in their practical work for judging. The task was to reproduce an entire upper central incisor using Enamel Plus materials according to a photo of the tooth. The students didn’t make the task of choosing the best one easy for associate professor Paul Gerloczy, handing in numerous high quality build ups. Finally the winner was decided: Andrea Ozsvar, Hungarian language student from the 4th year. The contest to pick the Hungarian National representative was held in Budapest, where Andrea once again proved herself superior and won the chance to compete against the best students of the other nations in Chieti, Italy.

After arriving to the University in Italy, the Dean – Prof. Dr. Sergio Caputi – and head of the Department of Restorative Dentistry – Prof. Dr. Camilo D’Arcangelo – gave us a warm welcome worthy of traditional Italian hospitality, and then guided us through the impressive research, clinical and theoretical teaching facilities of the university.

After a lunch of artfully composed specialities of the Abruzzo region, it was time to get down to business. The assignment: 1. Build up of the coronal part of a previously sound front tooth, to the same character as it was previously. 2. Place an esthetic filling in a class II. cavity of a previously sound molar. The time alloted was one hour for each part.

After completing the tasks, the winner was selected during a short consultation by the judges. Eventually, it was decided to split the first prize between the student from Lithuania, and the student from Szeged. Their prize is a 3 month scholarship at the University of Chieti, Faculty of Dentistry, with clinical and research duties. Congratulations to Andrea for a job well done! Henceforth, Micerium is plannning to further spread the championship in Europe, thus raising the level of competition. For ourselves, after a „promising” first year, our goal seems evident: „Next year we’ll go for the win!”

Andras Forster