Have you been following what Tesla (Elon Musk) is doing to electricity markets with its new Powerwall battery for your garageThis new technology promises to disrupt the source, distribution and use of electrical power and give the household new options as both a consumer and a supplier of electricity. It redefines what we know to be the “electrical utility” as someone next door rather than a big building downtown.
Have we seen similar disruptive technologies which redefine what we know as dental care?
Cosmetics come to mind. Family dentists now can go far beyond the drill and fill, to make teeth whiter and straighter.
But cosmetics account for less than 10% of what adult patients want, at least according to our surveys in the waiting rooms of Ontario dental practices. So the scope for cosmetics disrupting dental services is modest. No Tesla here.
What about the dental decay, which accounts for about 40% of the activity in today’s dental practice? Are there new disruptive technologies which will impact how we handle this disease?
Fluoride varnish comes to mind. But then, this technology is unproven in randomized controlled clinical trials of community-dwelling adults. We simply don’t know if it works.
Prevora also comes to mind. It has complete evidence from controlled trials, and it works to manage the cause of dental decay — the bacterial infection on the tooth surface.
So imagine this: your community begins to understand that a cavity is a bacterial infection rather than just soft teeth and that being a diabetic or having arthritis or hypertension put you at high risk of cavities. Does this context change the meaning of a “cavity” just like the Powerwall changes the meaning of the monthly hydro bill?
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