What is tooth conserving dentistry?
Tooth conserving dentistry treats weak, fractured, and decayed teeth in a way that keeps them strong and seals them from bacterial invasion. Careful sealing against infection removes the need for 60% to 90% of the crowns and root canals of traditional dentistry.
What is wrong with conventional dentistry?
Conventional dentistry techniques don't take advantage of the advanced ceramics and adhesives developed by modern engineering. These new technologies allow dentists to use small onlays that work more like your own teeth than the large porcelain crowns used in traditional dentistry. Old techniques can cause your teeth to eventually crack and leak, allowing bacteria to rot your teeth away from the inside. Tooth conserving dentistry locks out the bacteria, for safer, more durable dental work.
Who invented tooth conserving dentistry?
The principles of tooth conserving dentistry were developed by researchers at prestigious universities in Tokyo, Geneva, Rome, Amsterdam, Houston, Portland, and Hong Kong. Groundbreaking work by Gary Unterbrink, Didier Dietschi, Pascal Magne, Urs Belser, and J-F Roulet in Europe, and Ray Bertolotti and John Kanca III in the United States, have refined these advanced adhesive dentistry techniques for the past 25 years. I've personally used tooth conserving dentistry in my own practice for more than 11 years and have seen a dramatic reduction in the number of teeth that leak, break, and die.
What's different about tooth conserving dentistry?
Instead of simply filling cavities as though they were potholes, tooth conserving dentistry keeps the patient's long-term dental health in focus. By using advanced adhesive techniques and properly fashined onlays, dentists can make sure that dental work will fail in a repairable way, before your teeth suffer any biological failure. By sealing the tooth against infection, tooth conserving dentists make sure they don't make dental problems any more serious than they already are.