Prevention: The best management approach

Editorial

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Prevention: The best management approach

“P

revention is better than cure”

Who does not know this proverb!? Last month, I made a trip to Minnesota to attend the 3M-ESPE symposium and it was an eye-opener for me. The recurring theme of the symposium was oral disease prevention. Worldwide, the stress is on disease prevention and toward this end, institutions and industry need to collaborate in a big way reach the needy. From the womb to the tomb, the oral cavity of a human is continuously exposed to attritional forces in the form of organisms, trauma, and the aging process. In countries with aging population, oral health management has become a major health issue both for family and the health care provider. Oral health influences systemic health and as a consequence, national health care may become overburdened with the responsibility of providing health care to the geriatric population. Health policies and insurance policies largely omit dental and oral health in their coverage. In India, the population is a young population but the problem is that it mainly resides in rural areas where oral health care has poor penetration. The number of dentists providing oral health care in rural areas are very low, be they in government sectors or private sectors. Access this article online

It is in this context and against this background that the prevention of disease assumes vital importance. On the one hand, costs are high while, on the other, professionals providing oral health care are in very low numbers. Therefore, the pressing need worldwide today is for oral health care programs for disease prevention. Toward this end, we need to educate children, pregnant women, and the senior citizens about the correct practices to safeguard their oral health. Industries should produce formulations to prevent disease, as well as technology for early diagnosis. Lastly, as professionals, we have a duty to our patients, who we are all only too eager to treat, to educate them about the proper practices to take care of their oral health. Let us all come together to give back to our patients in the very best way using prevention as our mantra. It will not be easy, but it is time we made a purposeful start. Difficult things take a long time, impossible things a little longer ~ André A. Jackson Sincerely yours,

Kundabala Mala Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal University, Mangalore, Karnataka, India. E-mail: [email protected]

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DOI: 10.4103/2229-5194.142933

Journal of Interdisciplinary Dentistry / May-Aug 2014 / Vol-4 / Issue-2

How to cite this article: Mala K. Prevention: The best management approach. J Interdiscip Dentistry 2014;4:61.

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