Oh boy, are you folks trying to make me blush or something? I feel like a question of this magnitude should be addressed by Gordon Christensen, Rosh Nash, David Hornbrook, Pete Dawson or Bill Dickersen (word to the wise, if you don't know who any of the folks I just mentioned are, look into them, they are all visionaries in Dentistry).
First off, where dentistry is today...... It's in a very strong position. This is a very well respected profession that is highly appreciated by the general public (even if alot of folks say that they hate coming to see us). This is also an incredibly exciting time to be in dentistry with respect to the technological advances that are occurring at an incredibly rapid pace. Less than 10 years ago when I was starting dental school, things like self etching primers, 1 step primers + adhesives, digital radiography, rotary endodontics, composite materials with good wear rates, lasers, and highly integration successful/clinician friendly implant systems were primitive ideas at best! Dentistry was worried that the DMO would take over and decrease our earning potential. And tooth whitening was essentially limited to the very wealthy who could afford all porcelain, very fracture prone crowns for their anterior teeth.
The best change that I've noticed amongst patients especially over the last couple of years is that more and more people are viewing dentistry not just as a means to "fix a cavity", but as a means to change their appearance. I keep getting more and more folks asking me if I change change their smile like they saw on TV or read in a magazine. Nowadays the amount of "optional" treatment that I'm doing (i.e. bleaching, veneers, ginival recontouring, requested amalgam replacements) is over 1/4th of my daily rountine(and I'm practcing in a rural, blue collar town). The education of patients by not only dentists, but also the media is leading to more and more folks keeping their teeth longer and longer, and not expecting loose teeth as they age. This is great, since folks are once again asking for our help to accomplish this goal, and you know what, we've got answers and treatments to accomplish them that didn't exist a few years ago. Bottom line, right now is a great time to be in dentistry.
In the future, I see things as a whole getting better and better for us as dentists. The trend of folks keep more teeth longer is likely to continue improving, and thus we'll have more teeth to work on, even if population growth is stagnant. Technology will also likely yield many evolutionary changes. We'll likely soon have a wear resistant, 1 step self etching/priming/adhesive/ restorative material (basically choose the shade, place into the prepared tooth and cure). Soon we'll likely have a composite restorative material/bonding agent that will be unaffected by the presence of moisture during its placement. The electric handpiece and digital radiography will likely be the norm in a decade or so. We'll likely have bleaching systems that will have 0 sensitivity that work in 30 minutes or less. Most of our crown and bridge will likely be milled in chairside units and permanently cemented less than an hour after you first anesthetize the patient. In 20 years, I'd bet that students graduating at that time will know as much about how to place and amalgam restoration as current grads know about placing a gold foil restoration. Basically this profession is in the midst of an incredible technological revolution that is making our daily routines quicker, more fun and rewarding, and more profitable. This will allow us in the future to treat more patients than are currently receiving dental treatment even though demographics say that there will be less dentists practicing.
The only real potential problems in the future could be the insurance issue and the amalgam issue. I highly doubt the insurance issue will become a factor, frankly I think that it's more likely that dentistry will go insurance free(i.e. complete fee for service) than it will go the way of the DMO. The amalgam issue could be a bit of a dark cloud. If it utimately gets linked to major health issue(highly doubtful) or pollution issues(more likely) than dentistry could be hit with a mini version of what the tobacco industry is going through. This last bit is reason enough to join ASDA and then stay with the ADA after graduation because they are working hard to protect this industry as we know it.
I'm sure I'll probably add to this in later posts, but thats atleast a start to "the dental word according to Dr Jeff"
