Description

When dental healthcare providers approach patient care with standardized treatment based on a protocol, it is assumed all patients are average and will normally respond to treatment similarly. This science of dentistry has created a one-size-fits-all approach to consider aligning treatment modalities with evidence-based dentistry. The art of dentistry, however, clarifies there is great variation in patient disease presentations and subsequent response to therapy. Precision oral healthcare is a multifaceted, data-driven approach to oral healthcare that uses unique and individual characteristics to stratify patients based on risk for myriad oral and systemic diseases. In order to deliver patient-centered oral care, we must first accurately assess underlying risk factors for common diseases and problems. This course seeks to deliver an overview for tangible risk assessments that can be implemented in the dental office and how such risk assessments can inform crafting individualized treatment plans for the treatment, maintenance and prevention of oral diseases and conditions.

Upon completion of this session, attendees should be able to:

• Discover the paradigm shift from the utilization of universal protocols in patient care to precise, individualized approaches to disease prevention and treatment.
• Integrate the art and science of dentistry to evolve past insurance-driven dentistry into a patient-centric precision dentistry model.