From Mindless Mechanic to Educated Educator

Over the last 100 years, the dental profession has undergone incredible progress to address problems created by oral disease. Our ability to restore function and esthetics efficiently and predictably via modern restorative materials, regenerative treatments, dental implant therapy, and digitally driven workflows is truly remarkable. For those members of our profession privileged to work in fully developed economies, the prevailing perception is that the war against caries, periodontitis, and edentulism has been largely won. There has surely never been a more exciting time to be in dentistry. Thus, it may sound paradoxical or even alarmist to state that dentistry is falling behind in its mission to serve the needs of our patients—but it is.