"You must stay current, or you will be left behind." That is not a marketer talking. That is the president of the Chicago Dental Society, and he means it as a word of caution to every clinician or organization reading this.
I sat down with Dr. Phil Schefke, President of the Chicago Dental Society, the organization behind the Chicago Midwinter Meeting, one of the world's biggest and most influential dental shows. Phil has spent his career in organized dentistry, and the last 12 years as full-time faculty, so he has watched this profession change from the inside.
I go to Chicago Midwinter most years and do a review-style write-up of all the latest releases of the show (you can read them here), so I was keen to get the view from the person actually running it. What I got was a candid read on where dentistry and dental expos are heading.
Listen to the episode below or continue reading to find out more.
TLDR - The Episode in 30 Seconds
- Phil is President of the Chicago Dental Society, which he says is 161 years old and the largest component of the American Dental Association.
- His blunt message to clinicians is to stay current or get left behind, because the pace of change now is unlike anything he has seen.
- He makes the case that in-person meetings survive because you can touch the equipment, compare competitors head-to-head, and do the hands-on work you cannot do online.
- Expo attendance is genuinely getting harder, and he points to reimbursement not keeping up with the cost of technology as a core pressure.
- The most surprising moment - the CDS has replaced its own receptionist with AI, because Phil says it does the job better.
- In the future, he backs 3D printing over milling and floats remote, AI-assisted dentistry for rural areas with zero dentists.
Who Is Dr Phil Schefke?
Phil is a dentist who practiced for 25 years and now teaches full-time at Midwestern University, while also leading the Chicago Dental Society. He came up through organized dentistry the long way: branch officer, state roles, a stint on an ADA council, and he talks about it like family.
"My organization feels just like going home, like having a family reunion," he told me. "And when you go to the midwinter, that's the kind of feeling you have."
That matters, because the argument he makes for in-person events is not really about square footage. It is about people. And when someone has given their whole career to an institution, you listen to what they think is coming for it.
Inside the Chicago Midwinter Meeting
If you have never been, the scale is hard to picture. Phil says the meeting draws exhibitors and clinicians from all over, runs out of McCormick Place, and pulls a genuinely global crowd.
"This past year we had 67 countries represented at our meeting, and we had attendees from every single state in the union," he said. "So it's a local meeting, per se, but with global impact."
Here is what I find fascinating about Chicago Midwinter. You can fly into AEEDC in Dubai, a show five or six times bigger and often just a week or two prior to Chicago, and yet companies still choose Chicago to launch products. Phil puts it simply. February is the kickoff month, so the newest products show up there first. For a deeper look at what actually launched, see our full recap of the Chicago Midwinter Meeting.
And yes, it is freezing. My first time in Chicago, it was close to minus 30, and I am from New Zealand, where I had never lived with temperatures below zero by maybe 5 degrees. Phil's advice? Pack a layer and a hat. "Minus 30 is just a character builder."
Stay Current or Get Left Behind
Phil is not hyping technology for its own sake. He is describing a survival problem for the average clinic.
"You must stay current, or you will be left behind," he said. "The technology is just racing, just ramping so fast. It is like an avalanche of information."
He would know how far it has come. Phil graduated in 1987 and did a gold foil restoration to get his license. His impression material back then was rubber base.
"I would take two putties out and mix them on a pad and squish them on a tooth, and it would literally take 15 minutes to set," he said. "And God forbid if you got it on your clothes, it would never come out."
Now his dental school is almost fully digital: CEREC, e.max, zirconia, and bridges done in-house. In one career, we have gone from 15-minute rubber impressions to a full-arch scan in 20 or 30 seconds. When you frame it like that, the avalanche is real.
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Why In-Person Still Wins
Given how digital I have gone with iDD, you might expect me to argue everything moves online. I do not, and neither does Phil. His case for meetings is practical.
"By having the organizations come to our meeting and demonstrate their equipment, it allows our attendees to touch it, to practice with it, to experience it firsthand," he said. "They can go down the aisle and try the competitor's product as well."
My own take is that a lot of lectures can live online now, and honestly should. But the hands-on component is different. I can talk you through scanning or preparation all day, but without your hands on it and real repetition, it does not stick. On that, Phil and I completely agree. I am a big fan of both modalities. Online lectures and live hands-on training.
Falling Attendance and the Reimbursement Squeeze
I have just come back from IDEM in Singapore and a run of other shows, and the numbers are looking thinner. So I asked Phil directly whether it is getting harder every year to fill conferences. His answer was one word. "A hundred percent."
He thinks there is truth in all the usual theories: COVID, cost of living, a younger generation living online. But he keeps coming back to money.
"In America, the insurance industry kind of squeezes dentists," he said. "We're being given pennies on the dollar for the tremendous things that we have accomplished. So there has to be maybe a breaking point."
That is the pressure he believes could force the biggest change in how dentistry is delivered, practices combining, groups scaling up, whatever it takes to afford the technology. Here in New Zealand, we are fee-for-service with no real insurance layer, so it is a different world, but the underlying squeeze is familiar.
There does seem to be a global decrease in attendance numbers at expos. Interesting to see if that bounces back, or will clinicians mainly get their info online going forward, like from iDD?
The AI Receptionist
The CDS has already put AI to work in its own office, not as a demo but on the front desk.
"Within the last month or two, our receptionist is AI, because we have a small staff and we do not want to devote a staff person to answering the phones, because AI can do it better," he said. "You can use it in every touch point in your practice."
A 161-year-old dental society replacing its receptionist with AI is a real signal. But Phil is not naive about it. His framing on adoption is one every clinician should take on board.
"If you use AI flippantly and you don't apply the principles correctly, you will get garbage in, garbage out," he said. It is the same standard he holds students to on a composite. Use the tool properly or do not use it at all.
3D Printing Is the Wave
Ask Phil what excites him beyond AI, and he goes straight to 3D printing. His argument against milling is about process, not brand loyalty.
"You think about an ingot that has been the stalwart for us for 30, 35 years, and yet it's a reductive process," he said. "Here comes a noble solution, an additive process, 3D printing. An occlusal guard goes from 45, 50 minutes to print. It's down to 12, 14 minutes."
He also pointed to 3D printing reaching over 50% ceramic content, to the point where it of submitted as ceramic crowns. If that holds up clinically, it changes the maths on in-house production. If you want to get started properly, our 3D printing and design training walks through the workflow.
Milling is not going anywhere overnight. But in terms of space, maintenance, and speed, Phil sees printing pulling ahead, and I think he is reading it right. I wrote an in-depth piece on 3D-printing restorations here.
The Next 20 Years
Phil runs an event, but he thinks like a clinician about where care goes next, and he started with the rural problem.
In many US counties, there are zero dentists, and the youth all want the big cities. His answer is digital, potentially remote.
"If there could be an AI robotic opportunity that someone could set up in an office thousands of miles away, and that dentist can perform the service via virtual goggles and a handpiece that's not even in the same state," he said, "now you're talking about opportunities that can change the way dentistry is delivered."
His longer view is bolder still. Changing the oral flora so cavities become a thing of the past, treating periodontal disease with a swish-and-spit, or gene modification. Whether it lands or not, it is the kind of thinking that keeps a profession moving.
Final Thoughts
What I took from this conversation is that the person running one of dentistry's biggest shows is not complacent. Phil admits it is getting harder. He is candid about reimbursement and clear that standing still is the real risk.
His invitation was genuine, too. He says any dentist can become a CDS associate member for $125, which includes registration for the Midwinter Meeting, even from the other side of the world in New Zealand. Worth a look if you have ever wanted to see the show.
If you run a practice and you have been putting off digital, take Phil's warning at face value.
Listen to the full episode above for the whole conversation.
See you next year at the Chicago Mid-Winter Meeting.
Big thanks to SprintRay for sponsoring this Episode of the Digital Dentistry Decoded Podcast. To learn more about their 3D Printers and to book a demo, click here: info.sprintray.com/digital-dentistry-decoded-podcast
