ADA SmileCon: the national meeting that went quiet
The ADA ended SmileCon after 2025 and says its annual meeting is paused until further notice. Next dates: to be announced.
For years, the American Dental Association's national meeting was a fixture of the fall calendar, most recently under the name SmileCon. Today there is no next edition to point to. Dates are to be announced, and the ADA has not committed to a future meeting.
What happened
In May 2025 the ADA announced it would end SmileCon. The association said the meeting had drawn positive feedback, but attendance never rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, and the rising cost of holding events was also a factor. The last edition under the SmileCon name was scheduled for October 23 to 25, 2025, in Washington, D.C. The ADA said a planned 2026 SmileCon in Indianapolis would not move forward.
The picture since then has been mixed. The ADA's SmileCon page lists an ADA 2026 Scientific Session, formerly known as SmileCon, for October 8 to 10, 2026, in Indianapolis. Its future meetings page now says the association has paused its annual meeting, apart from its House of Delegates, until further notice, after a bylaw change removed the requirement to hold an annual scientific session. The next House of Delegates is listed for October 29 to November 1, 2027, in Denver, but that is a governance meeting, not a convention.
What the meeting was
As a national event run by the ADA, the meeting offered what the big regional shows do: continuing education for the whole dental team and an exhibit hall where companies showed new equipment and materials. Its draw was breadth. It was the one meeting not tied to a single city or region.
What it means for patients
Very little changes in your chair. Dentists did not stop learning when SmileCon ended. They still have the large regional meetings in New York, Boston, Chicago and Atlanta, state meetings like Florida's, specialty meetings such as the AACD's for cosmetic work, and a great deal of online and hands-on coursework. New tools like digital scanners, 3D printing and AI-assisted imaging still reach practices through those channels.
The lesson is about where to look. A convention badge was never the point. What matters is whether your dentist keeps learning in the areas that affect your care. At a consultation, ask what training they have taken recently for the treatment you want, and how they decide when a new technique is ready to use.
We will update this page if the ADA announces a new national meeting.
Sources
Educational content, not individual medical advice. Every mouth is different, so talk to a licensed dentist about your own teeth. The Real Miami Dentists is powered by 5 Star Smiles.
