What’s In A Name?

During my rewarding 35 year career as a dentist, I have watched members of my profession who chose not to limit their practices to one of the dental specialties attempt to define and redefine themselves by changing the signs in front of their offices. For some time, I played the game. We were “Dentists”, then “Family Dentists”.  During the cosmetic revolution, we became “Family and Cosmetic Dentists”.  Many years ago, Dr. David Rosenfeld and I decided to define our practice with terms that would never alter. We chose “Caring Contemporary and Cosmetic Dentistry”. “Caring” because that is our mission. “Contemporary” because we are dedicated to practice in a manner consistent with the current valid research with the goal of achieving excellent outcomes. “Cosmetic” because we think that dentistry is at the point where there is no longer a need for unsightly solutions to dental issues.It is the combination of the three that makes our practice unique.

Many of our patients have asked us to define “Contemporary Dentistry“. Contemporary Dentistry is a philosophy of dentistry that is extremely conservative and is dedicated to the prevention of oral disease, and to non surgical and non cutting (non drilling) treatment of damage to teeth and gums caused by disease.  It is deeply rooted in evidence based dentistry (dentistry based on findings published in the most prestigious peer reviewed scientific journals) as opposed to traditional dentistry which continues to emphasize treatment over prevention and tooth cutting over more conservative modalities. Contemporary Dentistry utilizes modern technology such as digital impression taking and lasers, and is dedicated to patient comfort and conservation of tooth and gum tissue. It acknowledges the mouth – body connection and is deeply involved in the inter relationship between oral diseases and systemic disease.

Future blogs will deal with the principles and practices of “Contemporary Dentistry” in far greater detail. For now, understand that we are dedicated to excellence, maintaining a healthy beautiful smile, observing the sanctity of the mouth – systemic (body) connection, and providing care that is patient centered and not care that is merely financially advantageous to us.