General guidelines

Participants must submit their cases via the awards management software evalato.com. Submissions that have been submitted in other ways will not be taken into consideration and will not be allowed to enter the contest.

Categories

  1. Complex esthetic restoration in pediatric dentistry

  2. Complex esthetic restoration

  3. Composite restorations

    • Composite Partial Restorations

    • Restorative Composite Smile Makeover

  4. Ceramic restorations

    • Ceramic Partial Restorations

    • Restorative Ceramic Smile Makeover

  5. Pink esthetics

  6. Orthodontic case

    • Orthodontics Adult Fixed

    • Orthodontics Children/Teenagers Fixed

    • Orthodontics with Aligners - Adults

    • Orthodontics with Aligners - Children/Teenagers

  7. Implant case

    • Implant Single Tooth

    • Implant Partial Jaw Restoration

    • Implant One Jaw Restoration

    • Implant Full Mouth Restoration

  8. Clinical case with a full digital protocol

  9. Endodontic Case

    • Endodontic Treatment

    • Endodontic Retreatment

    • Micro Surgical Endodontics

  10. Dental Art Photography

  11. Student Clinical Case


Main Requirements

  1. Participants must be dentists, dental technicians, or dental students.

  2. Dentists must obtain consent from the patient(s) whose case(s) they want to submit. Patients must consent to photographs of their faces being made public (example of consent document found here).

  3. If a case involves a dental technician, dentists are required to obtain consent from the dental technician to submit the case (example of consent document found here).

  4. Treatment in the clinical cases that are submitted in the contest must be completed before April 1, 2026.

Participation in different categories

  1. Each participant can submit only one case per category.

  2. Each participant can submit multiple cases as long as they are in different categories.

  3. Each case can only be submitted in one category.

  4. Same cases in different categories won’t be accepted.

Evaluation process

Our team has spent years perfecting the evaluation process to make sure your entries get fair and balanced scores.
Every year, we invite experts and professionals from the world of dentistry to form our jury panel

Stage 1: The organizer reviews and approves each clinical case within 24 hours of submission. After the submission deadline is over, the jury is given access to all cases, and the judging process begins.

Stage 2: First voting round – the jury evaluates all the cases and winners in each category. Evaluation is based on a 10-point scale for each of the judging criteria in the respective categories. The judging criteria are different in each category. Each criterion has a different weight. In 2024, we introduced score normalization – a mathematical formula to ensure that every entry is scored based on the same set of standards, regardless of how many judges are evaluating the program submissions. Essentially, it helps reduce variation in judging by standardizing each judge’s scores. For more information about the judging criteria, see the guidelines for the respective category.

OBJECTIVITY OF THE JUDGING PROCESS

Each jury member votes independently of the other jury members. Results are automatically calculated, and the case with the highest number of points wins the award in the respective category. An entry needs to score 6 or more points to be awarded. Aiming for maximum objectivity of the judging process, all cases are anonymized. Only the organizers have access to the names of members of the participating dental teams.

SELECTIVE JUDGING PROCESS: The jury members are voting selectively only in those categories in which they are experts!

TRANSPARENCY OF THE COMPETITION: Smile of the Year is committed to transparency in the competition. Therefore, following the ceremony, we announce the winners by publishing all entries together with the individual scores from the entire jury, as well as the jury’s feedback for each entry. They will also be published on the website.

Results from the judging process will be announced at the award ceremony.

  1. If two or more entries in a category receive the same number of points, all entries will be ranked as prize winners.

  2. If there is only one entry in a category, an award will be granted only if the total score from the judging process exceeds 8,200 points.

Specifics of the Judging process

Submissions must include a short description in English of your clinical case, not longer than 6,000 symbols in accordance with the respective category requirements.

  1. Maximum allowed size for image files is 5 MB. For image requirements, see the respective category.

  2. Submit your application via evalato.com – the awards management platform which allows you to put together and submit your case in an easy, intuitive way. After you enter the required personal and professional information, you can upload all required images and case descriptions at your own convenience.

  3. Submission deadline is April 1, 2026 at 11:59 EET.

How to enter

Advantages of Evalato

  1. Complete transparency of the competition.

  2. Easy, fast and intuitive registration and submission.

  3. Fill out and submit your case at your own pace.

  4. Register now, start prepairing and submit later.

PARTICIPATE NOW