The Evolution of Dentistry: What is trending now and what will the future hold?
By Dr. George Freedman Dentistry has been evolving rapidly in recent decades. It can often be a challenge to dental professionals to keep up will all the developments that are occurring simultaneously. It is important for the practitioner to identify important trends within the profession such that they can maximize their time spent in learning and their money spent on upgrading. Major trends in clinical dental materials Development in dental materials tends to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. In order to identify important current and future trends, the easiest technique is to examine recent directions of research and commercialization, and to extrapolate them into the coming years. For example, amalgam restorations, popular for more than a century, have been largely replaced by tooth-colored materials in the span of 20 years. Dental professionals seeking to improve patient treatment are searching for restoratives that ca...