Editorial
Looking Far Into Future Of Dentistry
In 1945, at a dinner of the Royal College of Surgeons in
London, England, the well known English statesman late Sir Winston Churchill
was credited with the statement *... the longer one looks back, the farther
one sees into the future". Put simply, the statement could mean "Learn
from history so that you may be a visionary". Applying this vignette
to dentistry, there is a whole lot to expect or hope for as we prepare for the
next millennium.
In 1992, the FD1 decided to declare 1994 the World Year of
Oral Health and, most appropriately, the World Health Organization (WHO)
resolved to dedicate the World Health Day, 7th April 1994, to Oral Health.
These resolutions are open affirmation that Oral Health is an integral part of
general health care. Needless to emphasize, the universally declared WHO goal
of "Health for all by the year 2000" includes dental health in all its
aspects.
The question that may then be put is: How would past
events shape the future of dentistry? By past events one must include the ever
increasing expectation of informed patients, government and public health
policies, curricula of undergraduate and postgraduate dental education,
professional remunerations, changing patterns of oral diseases, the cutting
edge of health care technologies, primary health care philosophy, disease
prevention and health promotion. These are broad aspects of health in general
and dental health, in particular about which we have learned so much in the
past and on which volumes have been written.
Despite these events, the question could still be validly
asked: What is the future of dentistry in Saudi Arabia? A reasonable answer
would be that the future is brighter. How can this be accomplished? Most
probably by the profession accepting philosophically that prevention of disease
is the highest quality of care that health providers could give because it
offers the greatest protection to all patients. The condition for achieving
this is that the undergraduate and postgraduate dental education in Saudi Arabia
would need to adapt their curricula to address more efficiently the integration
of the dental team into the primary care team. There must be enhanced
coordination and collaboration between dentistry and primary care in clearly
identified areas - education, training and research, disease prevention, health
promotion, curative treatment, comprehensive patients records, and integrated
health care conferences, symposia and workshops. The attraction of creating and
sustaining more dental specialties must be questioned and preferably replaced
by a smaller number of specialties which are grouped together because
they are cognate. More and more specialties (and the so-called subspecialties),
although certainly glamorous, should not be the preferred solution to a more
relevant future of dentistry.
A greater and committed attention should be paid to health
care management, health technology and informatics in both undergraduate and
graduate dental education. Today in Saudi Arabia, dentists (men and
women) are being successfully trained in what appears to be a geometrically
increasing numbers to meet the perceived needs of the country. Many of these
professionals especially those with postgraduate qualifications are bound to
occupy academic, government and quasi-government positions
where they will influence public policies on oral
diseases prevention, curative, as well as continuing care. A unifying action
philosophy, tied up with primary health care, will facilitate executing these
policies.
If the dental profession is not afraid to look back and
learn from its past deficiencies, mistaken assumptions, exaggerated claims and
questionable contrived needs, the profession may see the future more clearly
and thereby prepare better strategies to achieve its goal in the next
millennium.
Hezekiah A. Mosadomi,
DMD, DABOP, FAAOP, MS, BS
Editorial Board Member
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