Surveying the landscape

I am reaching the end of my 10^th year on the committee of the British Academy of Aesthetic Dentistry, with six of those as treasurer and two as incumbent president. In this time, the world of dentistry has changed dramatically. It has not been sudden, rather a multitude of small steps, but it is very gratifying to see that all the roads are, so to speak, leading to Rome.

The last decade years has seen a plethora of new organisations, academies and societies suddenly erupt out of seemingly nowhere. We have thankfully discarded the pursuit of the American fridge door smile and indeed, together with our European and South American colleagues, appear to be exporting the desirability of beautiful natural looking dentistry back across to the land of B0.

What has changed?

 I think we can summarise it as follows:

A humbling awareness of the longer term toll of iatrogenic damage that was being done in the name of cosmetics. It is now indefensible to cut away healthy tooth tissue to make room for porcelain purely for cosmetic reasons. It was not that long ago that very heavy tooth preparations with significant longterm endodontic repercussions were being carried out up and down the country. The rapid moral rejection of this type of dental mutilation is a credit to a forward thinking profession which I am sure will never return to those days again.