CATEGORY 40 AUSTRALASIAN DENTIST EVENTS Imagine sitting through a world-class lecture and the moment it wraps up you’re stepping off the back of a boat into pristine blue water, snorkelling or diving alongside a whale shark or a passing a squadron of manta rays. That’s no longer just a fantasy. It’s a genuine account, drawn straight from attendees’ reviews of what happened at this year’s most talked-about dental conference: a lecture series on board a luxury live-aboard yacht in the Maldives. Creating an intimate at-sea dental education experience Dr Trilok Vallury is a private practitioner from South Australia and the man behind the event. He is a passionate diver and traveller, multi-practice owner, father, and the founder of Buoyancy Controlled Dentists. He first travelled to the Maldives in early 2020 to dive the incredible underwater world there. It was during his week onboard the Scubaspa superyacht that the idea took shape. “I wanted to bring dentists and their partners to places like this and give them an experience they’d never forget, while also learning from the best in the business,” he explains. The concept was simple in principle but ambitious in execution: combine serious, high-level continuing professional development with genuinely unforgettable travel experiences, in some of the most beautiful (above and below the surface) parts of the world. Five years on, the idea has become a reality. The inaugural voyage To bring the concept to life, Dr Vallury partnered with ScubaSpa, one of the most luxurious motorised superyachts operating as a liveaboard and floating day spa. The inaugural BCD Maldives conference took place in April 2026, with an impressive roster of speakers including Dr Alex Fibishenko, Dr Helen Arabatzitsis, and Dr Nic Egbert, among others. Across the trip, attendees clocked up 22 hours of some of the highest-calibre continuing professional development available anywhere in dentistry. But for many, the real highlight wasn’t the lecture ‘theatre’ (aka. the dining room, on the deck of the yacht and on private sand-bars at sea). It was the dinner table. “One of the things attendees loved most was simply being able to sit down for a meal with people they admire and talk shop in paradise,” Dr Vallury says. That kind of informal conversation and relationship building with leading clinicians, over a meal rather than across a lecture podium, is difficult to replicate at a conventional conference. When delegates weren’t in lectures, and for the non-dentist partners and friends who attended, the ocean was right there waiting. Attendees enjoyed daily snorkelling or diving in the Maldives’ crystal-clear waters, spotting marine life most people only see in documentaries. Many guests actually completed their dive certifications between dental lectures! For those who didn’t feel like jumping in the ocean there was no shortage of alternatives: sunbathing, spa treatments, or simply relaxing in the jacuzzi on the upper deck. The whole experience ran on a fullboard basis, with delicious Maldivian and Sri Lankan-inspired menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Evenings brought their Learning in paradise: Have we found the world’s most unique luxury dental conferences?
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