21
Volume3 Issue5
|
I
ssues and
P
eople
Whatdo thenext10years
hold fordentistry?
Excitingdevelopments in researchand technologyaremaking it possible to re-imagine
howwewill practise dentistry in the future. From patient riskassessment anddisease
diagnosis tomaterials selection, transformative changes are on the nearhorizon. Ina
series of interviews onOasisDiscussions (
oasisdiscussions.ca
),CDA reached out to
leaders in various disciplines to seek their insights onhow their particularfieldsmight be
transformed in the next 10 years.
thought leaders series
Dr.RickCarvalho
,
professor in the
facultyofdentistry,
UniversityofBritishColumbia
Dr.PaulEdwards
,
professor,departmentoforal
pathology,medicineand
radiology, IndianaUniversity
schoolofdentistry
DentalMaterials
Materialswillbebioactive:
“I seea shift away from inertmaterials towardmaterials that
have some sort of activity. For example,materials that releasedrugs, likeantibacterial drugs
or anti-inflammatorydrugs, to target localizedandmaybe systemicdiseases aswell. These
bioactivematerials arealready inplace, but product developmentwill take time.“
Carewillbe tailored to thepatient:
“Advances ingenomics, proteomics, and
metabolomics aredriving research towardpersonalizedcare. The idea is todevelopa
chairside systemwhereyoucancreateapatient profile from salivaor blood, in termsof
biomarkers, proteomicsormetabolomics. Biomarkers can identify thepresenceof disease.
Proteomics andmetabolomics, bydeterminingapatient’s riskof gettingadisease, can
help inprevention.”
Listen to the full interviewwithDr.Carvalho:
Oral andMaxillofacial Pathology
The focusofgeneraldentistrywill expand:
“Thebiggest change I’mhopeful for in
thepracticeof dentistry is amuch larger focusonclinical oral pathology, oralmedicine,
management of headandneck lesions, andother non-dental, non-periodontal aspectsof
dentalmedicine. Dentists can really takeownershipof theseareas, and there isn’t abetter
trainedgroup to reallycare for thesepatients.”
Carewillbecomemorepersonalized:
“With thedecreasingcostsof genome sequencing,
thereareanumber of international efforts to tryand identifygeneticvariations that are
associatedwithdisease. These studies lookat singlenucleotidepolymorphisms and their
associationwithdisease susceptibility, response to therapies andpharmakogenetics. As the
database increases, dentists can takeadvantageof thisgrowingbodyof knowledge to tailor
ourmanagement of patients towhat isgoing tobemost effective for them.”
Invivomicroscopywill improvediagnosisoforal lesions:
“Inoral pathology, I thinkwe’re
going to seeamove toward invivomicroscopy for assessingcertainoral lesions.
