This workshop aligns with SDG Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being SDG Goal 4: Quality Education  by enhancing the skills and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for dental professionals. Through practical, hands-on training in rubber dam usage, this workshop fosters the development of essential clinical skills for both novice and experienced dentists, enhancing their competence in advanced isolation techniques to provide quality, precise dental care, thereby improving patient outcomes and contributing to overall health and well-being.

The Rubber Dam Xtremes workshop conducted by the Centre of Advanced Dental Education and the Department of Conservative Dentistry & Endodontics was a comprehensive two-day program designed to elevate the practical skills of dental practitioners in isolation techniques using rubber dams. With a mix of lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on sessions, the workshop was structured to cater to novice and experienced participants, enhancing their expertise in applying rubber dams across various dental procedures.

Day 1 began with an introductory lecture on rubber dam techniques and their clinical applications, followed by clinical videos and live demonstrations on phantom heads to further illustrate isolation techniques. In the afternoon, participants engaged in hands-on training, practicing anterior and posterior quadrant isolation on intact typodont models to build essential rubber dam skills. Day 2 opened with an advanced lecture that covered clamp selection, troubleshooting, and effective isolation in challenging cases. In the afternoon, participants practiced on pre-prepped typodont models across varied clinical scenarios, such as deep Class II, Class III, and Class V restorations, crown-prepped teeth, palatal cavities, veneers, and diastema closures, with a focus on matrix application in quadrant-specific isolations.

The workshop’s speaker, Dr. Niranjan Vatkar, is an accomplished micro-endodontist and restorative dentist from Pune, known for his expertise in retreatment, micro-endodontics, and composite restorations. Dr. Vatkar runs a precision-focused practice using the Carl Zeiss OPMI microscope. He earned his BDS from GDC Mumbai (2006) and MDS in Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics from MA Rangoonwala Dental College, Pune (2010). Trained by leading experts like Dr. Vishal Gupta and Pascal Magne, he has become a prominent educator, regularly conducting workshops and creating India’s first online rubber dam course, recognized nationally and internationally for his contributions to dental excellence.