The role of technology

Danny Grannick explores how new technologies are impacting oral health and dentistry.

Whilst we have seen other areas of healthcare shift to being prevention-focused, some feel that dentistry has remained largely reactive. Many practitioners are using traditional methods to detect existing diseases and provide treatments when they occur rather than preventing these conditions in the first place.

US citizens currently spend a whopping $103bn on dental care treatments annually. In reality, if patients invested half of this money into a proper measure of their oral health, you could help them prevent certain diseases and reduce the need for severe (scary and often painful) operations. Doing this is in a dental practice’s interests, as it can help increase loyalty and trust in the service provided. Rather than being a body that is feared and avoided, dentists can be a leader in supporting a movement towards healthier lives. Insurance packages could become prevention packages with a combination of dental care check-ups to ensure a healthy state of the mouth, and oral health checkups, to investigate symptoms of potential diseases.