The 14 final reports from the Global Congress on Dental Education III were published on February 19, 2008, and carried simultaneously in the journals of the European and American dental education associations.

Links to the full reports,together with 11 appendices available only online, are posted in the IFDEA Global Knowledge Centre. Dental educators, public health advocates and scholars are invited to read and discuss these reports on the IFDEA site.

More than 300 leading dental educators and scholars from 66 countries on six continents convened in Dublin, Ireland, for the third Global Congress on Dental Education. Their final reports provide an enlightening look into key issues shaping the quality of oral health and dental education around the globe.

The material covered ranges from the impact of developments in the biomolecular and biotechnical sciences, informatics and the application of evidence-based oral health care to the fundamental principles, realities and priorities of governing, managing and sustaining an effective modern dental school under different geopolitical and socio-educational circumstances.

The reports offer helpful recommendations on curriculum development, assessment and quality assurance. All relate to recommended profiles for the international dentist and oral health care team with reference to inequality in diverse regions of the world. Informed opinion of student organisations and their representatives as well as leaders from the corporate world provide important guidelines for academicians.

The context for all reports was set by four renowned keynote speakers and their stimulating addresses are carried in the special issue. These influential leaders  of international movements were the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Chancellor Mary Robinson; Sir Iain Chalmers, a founding member of the Cochrane Collaboration; Professor Jeffrey Sachs, the leading world economist on global poverty and its resolution; and Professor David Wong, who offered a vignette on the potential of biomedical sciences.

The experience and collective wisdom of the more than 300 authors in this special supplement provides a rich source of informed opinion for the dental educator.