Digital technology does not make better dentists
Much has been said and written about the last decade and how it has changed the way we live. Take the iPod for example. Back in 2000, who would have thought that in only ten years, you would be able to carry a little touch screen device that allows you to check your electronic mail, measure your heart rate or tell you where you can find the closest Italian restaurant?
Given all of the recent hype, it is easy to think that the future of dentistry also lies in digital technology. According to industry experts, the advantages seem to be at hand. Tooth restorations and replacements, for example, will be less time consuming for the patient, saver and much more reliable.
However, while digital technology is a welcome advancement in most fields of dentistry, it is far from being a revolutionary paradigm shift. It may improve office efficiency or be useful for practice marketing, but it is not likely to make better dentists. The fundamentals of the profession basically remain the same. Whether these technologies will become a must-have for dental practices in the years to come will depend on their affordability and whether insurance companies are willing to reimburse treatment concepts based on them.
As a dental news company, we cannot turn a blind eye to these developments. With a new specialist title called CAD/CAM the international magazine of digital dentistry to be released this spring, we aim to inform you about the latest trends in all fields of digital dentistry. Therefore, the range of topics will include not only CAD/CAM, but also digital imaging or software processing.
If you are interested in receiving a sample copy, we invite you to check our website or visit our booths at all major dental trade shows this year.
Time to show solidarity with Haiti (By Dr Adolfo Rodríguez, FOLA)
The earthquake that struck Haiti in January will be remembered for a long time. Its devastating magnitude has spread desolation amongst the population and resulted in the gravest crisis in Haiti’s history, leaving behind a completely destroyed country with little likelihood of recovery without assistance. As the first Latin American nation, Haiti gained independence from France in 1804. Even before disaster struck on 12 January 2010, it had suffered deeply from poverty and political unrest. It is the duty of developed nations to help rebuild this nation so that our Haitian brothers can look forward to a new and improved country.
Many of our colleagues in Haiti have lost everything: family, work, resources and, even worse, hope. The dental profession cannot be oblivious to this reality. The Latin American Dental Federation (FOLA) has launched an international campaign to assist dental colleagues in Haiti by providing resources to rebuild their lives and their professional practices. FOLA, FDI, Dental Tribune and dentists from all over Latin America are making great efforts to collect instruments, materials and equipment to restore oral-health services in Haiti. We hope you also join us in this effort.
We are also planning a dental congress in the Dominican Republic to collect funds for the reconstruction of Haiti.
Dr Samuel Prophet, the President of the Association Dentaire Haitienne, wrote in an e-mail from Port-au-Prince to Dental Tribune Latin America: “Knowing that FOLA, FDI and Dental Tribune will help dentists in Haiti is great news because it gives us hope!”
This is a call to cooperate with us to help those who have been left without work or resources. Now is the time to show solidarity with our Haitian colleagues.
Women - The missing link in dentistry? (By Claudia Salwiczek, DTI)
I just returned from the Greater New York Dental Meeting where I had the opportunity to conduct a number of interviews with well-known opinion leaders in dentistry.What struck me most about the line-up was that only 1 out of the 30 professionals that I spoke to was a woman.
It is a sad fact that compared to other fields in medicine dentistry is still predominantly a male profession. There are exceptions, of course, such as Dr Catrise Austin, a New York-based dentist, who I recently met to talk about her decision to offer free HIV tests to her patients. Or Dr Bo Chen from Beijing, who I met at the P-I Brånemark symposium in Sweden where she presented a revealing study on patient satisfaction figures with facial and orofacial reconstruction. Unfortunately, though large in impact, these developments and ideas do not usually receive the recognition they deserve.
However, what these examples also demonstrate is that women often tend to develop solutions that are socially applicable and that offer benefits for all members of society; a fact endorsed by a recent World Health Organisation report. In the study on Women and Health, the question was also raised why women generally have to carry much of the health care burden while getting hardly anything back. It may be time for women, especially those working in medical and dental professions, to step up and make their message heard.
It may not happen overnight, but with more and more women overtaking high political and economical positions, it will be difficult for dentistry to hold up to its Boys Club status for much longer. I certainly hope that when I return to New York in 2010, there will be a larger share of female dentists to speak to.
And the battle goes on …
Lately, I had the opportunity to visit two major gatherings of endodontists and implantologists in Europe. After listening to a number of lectures and speaking to experts it became obvious to me that both specialties are in almost total denial of one another. This ongoing cease fire is nothing new to dentistry but it cannot disguise the fact that one field is slowly loosing its grip, and it’s not implantology. Tooth replacements have seen a remarkable upswing and are expected to gain a significant market volume of US$1 billion in the years to come. Growth rates have slowed down recently but this is due to the fact that more and more dental companies are jumping on the implant bandwagon and taking over market shares from big players like Nobel Biocare or Straumann. With the economy recovering in most parts of the world, people will also have more money in their pockets to invest in their smiles.
P-I Branemark’s call to let the patient decide at the Gothenburg Symposium last week must be acknowledged but it goes out to the wrong group of people (see also Experts discuss future of implantology in Gothenburg). More and more patients want aesthetic teeth and they do not care about what it takes to get there. Latest studies also reveal that by now many consider aesthetics to be more important than function. It is up to the dentists to decide whether a tooth should be replaced or not but constantly improving treatment options and lowering investments will make the choice an easy one. On top of that, a growing number of implant vendors is practicing more and more aggressive marketing. It seems unlikely that many dentists will resist these market calls in the long-run.
In Gothenburg, a clinical scan was shown where basically all teeth had been replaced with implants. As ridiculous as this example may be, it does hold some truth. The future doesn’t look very bright for the ‘root’.
Dentists are having a hard time
How is your practice doing? If the answer to this question is ‘fine’, chances are high that you are living in a part of the world where people still visit their dentist on a regular basis. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for all members of the profession. Latest reports suggest that more and more patients around the world are postponing their dental visits due to recession-related financial problems. In the UK, for example, almost one million less people have had their teeth checked since 2006. More than 60 per cent of 1,000 adults in the US have also cut back on dental visits (see also Americans cut down on dental visits) and similar reports are now coming from Australia. These numbers are of significant proportions. They not only indicate a considerable loss of income for dentists and perhaps even the closing of some dental offices, they are also a setback for those who are constantly fighting to bring the oral health message into the minds and attitudes of people. Whether these reports are drawing a realistic picture or not, they certainly demonstrate that many people do not consider their oral health as something to watch over at the moment. Organisations like the World Dental Federation or the WHO have tried to raise awareness for the need of dental care to be an essential part of primary health care services in the last few years. Unfortunately, their achievements could be in vain since governments are changing their priorities and leaving health behind in order to balance national budgets. Therefore, joint efforts of politicians, health care professionals and, up and foremost, dentists are necessary to convince people to invest in their oral health again. Free dental missions may be a good tool to help a few people but they are like giving lessons to a child that doesn’t want to learn. Out of sight is out of mind.
It’s all about saliva
A friend of mine recently had a bacterial infection. In telling me about his problems, the first thing he mentioned was that he had experienced symptoms of dry mouth and matured biofilm. He had also suffered from hypersensitive teeth.
My friend’s example, though trivial in nature, is a good example by which to demonstrate the way the oral cavity functions as a window to our inside world. The latest research has shown that it can be a very reliable indicator of our inner state of health. Every day, the salivary glands secretes over 1.5 litres of saliva into the oral cavity, carrying with it valuable information. These biomarkers can be from sites of disease, or the salivary glands themselves can produce surrogate biomarkers of disease. The good news is that the information provided by these can be obtained non-invasively, painlessly and with no embarrassment to the patient—without needles or cringing.
Owing to these salivary properties, a dental examination today is no longer only about teeth and gums. Dentists should be aware that they are probably the first to detect signs of systematic diseases in their patients. Take HIV/Aids for example: despite new, effective medication, the latest infection rates still demonstrate a continued increase in poor and developing countries alike. According to a recent report by UNAIDS, for example, an estimated 50 million women in Asia alone are at risk of becoming infected with HIV/Aids by their intimate partners in the next decade. Early detection could significantly reduce morbidity here.
Oral fluid testing technologies are under development and already in use in several dental offices in Europe and the US. It will be years, perhaps even decades, before these tests are a regular part of every visit to the dentist, but there is no doubt that they will play a valuable part in the management and control of worldwide epidemics, such as HIV/Aids or cancer.
Michael Jackson and health care reform
When I started writing this editorial, news broke of Michael Jackson’s death. Although I have never been a fan of the ‘King of Pop’, his passing puzzled me deeply. How could a man that was supposed to perform 50 concerts in London over the next six months suddenly die from cardiac arrest?
According to news reports, the possible cause of his death was incorrect administering or use of medications such as with Propofol, a strong anaesthesia used in medical contexts such as intensive care units or surgeries. If a doctor facilitated such a medication for Jackson and it is found to have caused his death, he or she could be prosecuted for manslaughter.
Whatever the outcome of the ongoing investigation may be, this is a clear example of increasing unethical health care practices in the United States. Jackson, who despite being in severe debt, was still wealthy enough to afford any medical service, surgery or medications he desired. Over 50 million Americans still do not have access to health insurance. Therefore, the world should mourn the 800,000 people that die of cardiovascular disease every year in the US; deaths which could often be prevented by the provision of adequate health care such as heart screenings and other preventative measures.
Fortunately, recent signs from the White House indicate that President Obama is taking health care reform seriously and this time there is actually a chance that it could be done (see also Americans support dental coverage in health care reforms). However, what the US system needs more than money is an ethical discussion that leads to only one conclusion—to treat health care not as a market commodity but as a public benefit institution.
Eye on India
Being the Group Editor of DTI, I am in regular contact with dental publishers around the world and, occasionally, I am honoured to welcome new faces to our group. This year, for example, I am particularly looking forward to our new collaboration in India. Jaypee Brothers (JP), who joined the DTI network in March, is not only one of the biggest medical and dental publishers on the subcontinent, but also the perfect addition to our group. JP represents a country with a large population and the biggest output of dentists worldwide. I am sure that Dental Tribune Asia Pacific (DTAP) will benefit from their expertise and knowledge in the future.
Unfortunately, another disturbing issue is still with us. Although the media frenzy about the swine flu outbreak has died down, the world is still far from having overcome the crisis. Over the last two months, the virus has found its way from North America through Europe to Asia. There, the World Health Organization has warned, it could combine with avian flu and mutate into a more virulent form, sparking an influenza pandemic that could be expected to circle the globe up to three times. Infection control has never been more important!
Some words about our new website
Do you remember sending your first e-mail? I see myself in 1995 sitting in a dark basement in my first year at university , exchanging short messages with a friend sitting next to me, on a 486 PC that was state-of-the-art at the time. Since then so much has changed. What was just fooling around back then has become an everyday commodity that most of us cannot imagine living without.
Some experts have claimed that the Internet is one of the most important inventions of the last 50 years and, indeed, some projects have changed our lives significantly. With the Internet, it has never been easier to access and share information all around the world within just a few seconds. Today, we are able to buy goods or talk to people around the globe with just the click of a mouse. Giants like Google offer so many services that we can hardly escape them in our everyday lives.
However, in dentistry, especially in dental publishing, the race for revolutionary projects is still on. Many publishers, including ourselves, have long underestimated the many possibilities that the Internet has to offer, sometimes because we were afraid of neglecting our print offers. But this is changing. Dentists have been conservative when it comes to new technologies but now the age structure is shifting in many countries, making way for a new generation of dentists who have grown up with Internet technologies and are open to their opportunities. With our new website and the DT Study Club online education platform, Dental Tribune is striving to take the lead. We invite you to join us in this endeavour.
Dental trade shows in decline?
Have you attended a trade show lately? Did you feel that the experience was somewhat lacking compared to previous years? In a recent article published by the US consulting company Edge Marketing, the author and dental industry veteran Scott Mahnken states that dental trade shows are experiencing a decline in both quality and participation numbers. He attributes this to increased travel expenses and the losses dentists incur in closing their practices during exhibition times. In addition, taking online CE courses instead of attending seminars has become more attractive due to the increase in quality of these online courses, he claims.
Although Mahnken’s observations are accurate in terms of travel costs, clearly a result of the global financial crisis, online seminars cannot even begin to equal the actual experience dentists are able to gain at hands-on workshops or trade show booths. Should technology be so far developed as to simulate dentistry through 3-D technology or robotics, humans will remain essential for developing and identifying suitable materials and techniques for effective and appropriate patient treatment. Trade shows will be indispensable in assisting professionals in the planning and decision process.
This month, the world’s biggest marketplace in dentistry is set to open to dental professionals from Germany and around the world. The organisers of the International Dental Show in Cologne in Germany have projected an increased number of visitors to this year’s show compared with 2007. Over 1,700 exhibitors will give dentists the chance to get their hands on the latest in dentistry, be it designer furniture from Italy or handpieces that illuminate and feel fantastic in your hand. If you plan to attend, we wish you an enjoyable time and encourage you to tell us about your experience.
