The oral design group has grown to a total of 138 members in 33 countries (as of 2024) and will continue to organise oral design symposia every two years in various parts of the world, starting with the first one in the USA in 2000. The intention of the symposiums is to present the state-of-the-art of esthetic dentistry in our opinion to dental professionals in various regions, to educate and exchange ideas with local dental technicians, and to discover new talent. The dental world is changing dramatically with CAD/CAM: CAD/CAM has made things easier for us dental professionals, but it also tends to simplify aesthetics, and this is a backlight to what we have built up so far. What we don't want you to misunderstand is that CAD / CAM does not mean easy aesthetics. Dentists and dental technicians are the ones making the choice here, and oral design will continue to sound the alarm and develop esthetic prosthetics in line with the times.

Although oral design had not yet been born in the 1970s, Geller wanted to ensure good aesthetic treatment for his patients and was fighting against the taboos of the dental world of the time to find a concept that would become the basis for oral design.

In 1973, Geller opened a dental laboratory in Switzerland, where the dental industry was then also at the highest level of technology in the world, and Vita Zahnfabrik took notice and contacted Geller, a talented young dental technician from Austria who had come to Switzerland. Geller, who does not like to be tied down by contracts, kicks out of the instructor contract offered by Vita and takes on an advisory role. Geller then launches the Opekus dentine from VITA, and Vita Zahnfabrik uses this as an opportunity to create an advertising campaign with posters of Geller's prosthetics in 1978.

At the time, such advertisements and posters did not include the name of the manufacturer, but at Willi Geller's request, W.G. and his initials were added to the advertisements and posters. This made Willi Geller a household name around the world.

1970’s Project

In 1982, Geller launched oral design as a collective term for what he considered his 'philosophy of aesthetic prosthetics', and in his lectures, while advocating oral design, he tried something new: he showed pictures of lips with red lipstick alongside the prosthesis. Geller was the first to present lips with lipstick on them during a lecture. The reason for this was not only to show the patient's facial appearance and the harmony of the mouth, but also to create a sexy atmosphere in the lecture, to attract the audience and to keep them interested in the long lecture. In any case, the lecture was also intended to successfully create the image of red lips = oral design = Willi Geller, and to create a sense of fashion from the oral design.

For the 2nd International Symposium on Ceramic, dentists were given a larger venue, while Geller and Mr. Makoto Yamamoto were given a smaller venue with 250 people. However, the audience grew so large that a new 250-person room was set up next door, but this was still not enough, so that the lecture was finally held in four 250-person rooms with a total capacity of 1,000 people. The lecture was so legendary that even though there was room for 1,000 people in the lecture room, there was still standing room only and some people could not get into the venue. Soon after this lecture, Mr. Makoto Yamamoto in the east and Willi Geller in the west gained the respect of dental professionals worldwide, and they would grow the field of cosmetic dentistry worldwide.

In 1985, a castable ceramic called Dicore was launched. However, at the time there was no ceramic material that could be built up on the large core material and Geller developed a ceramic material to suit.

In 1988, together with a friend, Geller founded his own brand, Creation Willi Geller SIMPLY BRILLIANT. The fact that Geller, the world's best dental technician at the time, produced the porcelain, caused a great deal of excitement amongst the world's porcelain manufacturers and dental technicians all over the world. Since then, 'Creation Willi Geller' has been in a position to be followed by the world's porcelain manufacturers.

1980’s Project

At the beginning of the 1990s, the number of members of ORAL DESIGN was steadily increasing, but there was very little interaction between members, only exchange between countries and hearing about the reputation of the members through Geller.

Around the middle of the 1990s, the American dealer Jensen started to organise a labo-di during the mid-winter meeting in Chicago, where we were invited to demonstrate our own products at a booth. Such events gave us the opportunity to get to know and interact with members from all over the world, and a sense of an oral design group began to develop.

Through these experiences, oral design became aware of the existence of a group. At the initiative of Bodel Sjoholm, we organised a 'training on how to give a talk' in order to further improve our skills, and we began to feel each other, to improve the group by improving each individual, and to increase the value of the group. By 1997, the group had grown to around 37 members.

1998 Lecture "3rd Ceramic Days" of the members of oral design is held in Pforzheim, Germany.

1990’s Project

Geller was not satisfied with the form and colour of the artificial teeth on the market until the year 2000. At that time, when arranging denture prostheses, he would choose slightly larger prostheses, rearrange the forms, and produce and arrange the prostheses to suit the patient's individuality. However, there were still areas where the morphology was not as satisfactory as he had imagined, and the interdental papillae on the gingiva were not age-appropriate and did not have the right morphology. So he developed the first prosthesis that improved on these issues. The colour of the tooth prosthesis was also different from other prostheses: it was brighter, more natural and more beautiful.

In 2000, he organised the first symposia organised by the members of oral design, starting with the oral design Symposium New York, USA. This symposium will basically be held every two years.

In 2007, the 25th anniversary of oral design will be celebrated: the oral design meeting, initiated by Bertrand Thievent, took place in Geller's home base in Zurich, Switzerland.

- oral design Symposium New York, USA October 20-22, 2000

- oral design Symposium Minneapolis, USA September, 17- 19, 2004

- oral design Symposium Melbourne, Australia April, 7 - 9, 2006

- 25th Anniversary oral design Member Meeting Zurich, Switzerland September, 13 - 16, 2007

- oral design Symposium New York, USA April, 4-6, 2008

2000’s Project

In 2010, a symposium was held jointly with Quintessence in Japan, and since then Oral Design has continued to hold symposiums and meetings constantly. The 2010s was the year when the oral design group was most active.

- oral design Symposium with QDT Yokohama, Japan         October       07-10, 2010

- oral design Symposium London, United Kingdom　　　　 May,　　　 06-08, 2011

- oral design Symposium Rimini, Italy 　　　　　　　　　   September, 19-21, 2013

- oral design Symposium Madrid, Spain 　　　　　　　　   September, 16-19, 2015

- 35th Anniversary oral design Symposium Hollywood, USA September, 13-16, 2017

- oral design meeting Conil, Spain                                          September, 21-23, 2018

 In 2011, Japan was struck by the Great East Japan Earthquake, which caused enormous damage and is deeply etched in your memory. These two dental technicians are Mr Makoto Yamamoto and Mr Willi Geller, who spoke at the 2nd International Symposium on Ceramics. As this lecture was given on a volunteer basis, travel and accommodation expenses were the responsibility of each speaker. Mr Geller attended lectures in Tokyo and Miyagi Prefecture, where he gave hands-on lectures and lectures. The committee hopes to eventually hold a charity lecture in the affected areas once the situation has calmed down, which will take place in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, in 2016.According to rumours from Japanese dental manufacturers, Miyagi Prefecture is a poor area for holding lectures and other events to attract visitors. So the public was sceptical about attracting an audience for a charity lecture.

However, the lecture attracted more than 1,000 applicants, and those who applied for more than 1,000 slots thankfully received money in the form of donations. A special feature of the lecture was the two-day Geller Experience Lecture, which preceded the lecture and was attended by more than 50 participants. A total of 35 speakers gave lectures over the two days of the lecture. Six Oral Design members were selected as speakers out of those 35, which makes it understandable that the proportion of members at the lecture was very ward and excellent group in Japan, where the level of dental technology is very high.

The most important thing to say about this charity is that without Makoto Yamamoto and Willi Geller, this charity lecture would not have been possible. Yamamoto donates a large sum of money each time to the charity to cover the costs of running the lectures at each of the venues. In addition, Geller paid for his own travel and accommodation expenses, and also donated the money from the hands-on course as a scholarship to the children in the affected areas, without receiving a single penny.

In 2019, a three-way hands-on course was planned and held by Willi Geller, Hitoshi Aoshima and Shigeo Kataoka. Around the same time, a lecture series will also be set in motion in Asia, with the aim of holding user symposia on creation and fostering young people. The first symposium was held in Tokyo, Japan, where four young people were selected from Japan and two from each country, Korea and Taiwan, to give lectures. At that time, the plan was to continue this symposium in Taiwan and South Korea, but COVID-19 disrupted many plans around the world.

2010’s Project

A symposium was scheduled to be held in Bavaria, Germany in June 2022 to mark Oral Design's 40th anniversary. However, from the end of 2019, COVID-19 spread throughout the world, and the 2022 event was postponed to June 2023.