FEPPD              An  introduction

Welcome to the home page of the FEPPD (Fédération Européenne et Internationale des Patrons Prothésistes Dentaires also European and International Federation of Dental Technician Laboratory Owners).

Today the FEPPD is the only pan-European organisation able to represent the 40,000 dental laboratories and 210,000 dental technicians on European level. The FEPPD's goal is to promote their interests on a European level while interacting with the European Institutions and other professional organisations in Brussels. The success story of the FEPPD already began more than 50 years ago, when in 1953 the organisation was founded as FIPD - Fédération Internationale de la Prothèse Dentaire. In 1974 the organisation changed its name to FIPPD (Fédération Internationale des Patrons Prothésistes Dentaires) and in 1983 to FEPPD (Fédération Européenne des Patrons Prothésistes Dentaires).

Only recently - due to its internationalisation – the FEPPD changed its name again to Fédération Européenne et Internationale des Patrons Prothésistes Dentaires (European and International Federation of Dental Laboratory Owners), which remains until today its official name. In 2003 the FEPPD celebrated its 50th anniversary.

The current members are the national dental technician associations of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Since its creation the FEPPD has been expanding constantly to its current size.

The national federations (FEPPD's members) are the recognised negotiators to the competent authorities in their own countries on a professional, social and governmental level. The official languages of the federation are English, German and French.

President
Jürgen Schwichenberg

FEPPD thanks our Italian member federation ANTLO for providing us with pictures for our website

A recent milestone for the FEPPD was achieving the recognition of the dental technician as manufacturers of custom made dental devices and the ban of beryllium in dental alloys.

Today, the FEPPD negotiates a mutual recognition of professional qualifications, a correct understanding and implementation of directives on custom made medical devices and a higher standard in professional vocational training for its members at a European level.

Due to its close relation to the UEAPME and the NORMAPME (two organisations representing small and medium enterprises in the whole of Europe), the FEPPD also got the opportunity to represent with its expertise on the European Health Care level.