18 April 2023

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Minimally invasive dentistry

Massimo Gagliani

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I grew up with amalgam. The dictates of G.V. Black, "extend to prevent,” or invade areas of healthy enamel and dentin so much, sooner or later, they would have decayed. It was the dentistry of the famous triad: drill, fill, pay, autarkic vision of the thinnest and most sonorous "Drill, Fill, Bill” of Anglo-Saxon extraction.

Then I got to know prevention. I won't mention the masters so as not to forget some, and I arrived at adhesive dentistry which is now known as minimally invasive dentistry or minimal intervention dentistry (MID).

What is meant by "minimally invasive", honestly, I have not yet understood. The two terms collide. An invasive behavior leads to something explosive. We all remember, in elementary school, learning about the scourge of the locust invasion that struck the poor Egyptians, dedicated to the construction of pyramids.

You see the locusts invading… minimally. Lexical beauties.

The question, in a more refined and articulated way, is asked by some researchers who have ventured into the intricacies of the subject, with a study published in the May 2023 issue of the Journal of Dentistry. 

Do dentists know minimally invasive dentistry? If the answer is “yes,” do they put it into practice?

Three out of four dentists are familiar with minimally invasive dentistry but less than fifty percent use it. Making two lines of calculations, in which I include myself, minimally invasive dentistry is practiced by 35 dentists out of 100.

The authors write:

“Clinical significance. Understanding the knowledge and way oral health professionals treat dental caries is the first step in expanding the MID culture in dental practice. The ultimate goal is to change clinical practice and make MID the standard of care for dental caries worldwide." 

It’s an extensive program fraught with difficulties. Who will try, we will soon be close to 2024, about 30 years after the silent revolution of membership?

Regina Cardoso de Moura, Pablo Silveira Santos, Patrícia Magno dos Santos Matias, Filipe Colombo Vitali, Leandro Augusto Hilgert, Mariane Cardoso, Carla Massignan. “Knowledge, attitudes, and practice of dentists on Minimal Intervention Dentistry: A systematic review and meta-analysis,” Journal of Dentistry, Volume 132, 2023, 104484, ISSN 0300-5712, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdent.2023.104484.