About the D.I.C.A.
You may be wondering what a photo of cherry blossoms in Japan is doing on this page and how it relates to an association for Implant Coordinators. Interestingly enough, there is actually a very strong connection.
The DICA founder, Cynthia Bollinger, created the Implant Coordinator position in 1989, and began teaching numerous training courses nationwide. In 1995, she was invited to lecture in Japan on the business of implant dentistry. Over the course of two years, she traveled to Japan several times, presenting the practice marketing and management strategies that she had implemented with her surgical clients in the U.S.
During these trips to Japan, she also taught comprehensive training programs for dental hygienists who wanted to become Implant Coordinators, providing dentistry in Japan with a completely new concept. The program was extremely successful and many hygienists became advocates for their partially and fully edentulous patients, educating them about the benefits of implant treatment.
Several years later, one of the dentists attending these lectures, Dr. Yoko Kimura, made the decision to form an association for Implant Coordinators in Japan, and the JDICA was born.
Dr. Kimura joined our Implant Coordinator conference in Santa Monica in 2014, and participated in the meetings we held to determine how to make the JDICA and the DICA sister organizations. She has been a strong supporter of the role of the Implant Coordinator role for over 25 years, and it is our hope that we will be able to hold a joint conference with the JDICA in the near future.
We are so pleased that Dr. Kimura was able to join us for the DICA Conference at the SWSOMS Meeting at The Woodlands, Texas March 30 through April 2. As the keynote speaker, she shared what the JDICA has accomplished in Japan and shared her decades long journey improving the lives of hundreds of patients with full-arch dental implant treatment. The conference also provided an opportunity for us to discuss plans for a combined meeting for the DICA and the JDICA in the near future.
