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one job I can think of in Western countries that makes it<br />
easy for a patient with a missing central or dark, disfigured<br />
teeth to get a job. It’s a different world than it used to be. If<br />
we can bring about a cure for caries today, we’d still need<br />
more dentists.<br />
The most exciting news to me would be the amount of<br />
suffering we could stop for those who can’t afford Western<br />
dentists. Whereas one-third of our fellow Americans can’t<br />
afford treatment, two-thirds of the world doesn’t even<br />
have access to dentists. You’ve got humans who would<br />
jump off a cliff to escape the pain of an abscessed tooth.<br />
You’ve got humans who are known to pick up a boulder<br />
and mash it into the side of their head trying to escape the<br />
pain of an abscessed tooth. In so many parts of the world,<br />
including America, there are 12-, 13-, 14-year-old kids who<br />
are totally edentulous! The magnitude of this infectious<br />
disease is so devastating, when humans don’t have access<br />
to or can’t afford access to our Western-trained dentists. I<br />
believe it’s something we have to be serious about, just out<br />
of humanitarian reasons beyond mastication, chewing and<br />
the like.<br />
MD: I thought it was kind of self-evident that we’d still need<br />
dentists, even if we found a cure for caries. Can you clarify<br />
what you mean by that?<br />
DF: What I meant to say is, for sure we’ll need dentists. But<br />
I believe, even if we bring about a cure for caries, we’ll need<br />
more dentists.<br />
MD: Right. But are you saying there’s some pushback from the<br />
dental industry when you talk about curing dental caries?<br />
DF: I say that, quite frankly, just to let the dental industry<br />
know it shouldn’t be afraid of any source that is going to bring<br />
about a cure to caries because, whether it be us, whether<br />
it be NIH, whether it be JNJ, whether it be any company<br />
that comes out with a cure for caries, we’ll still need more<br />
dentists. So in a proactive way I’m saying: dentists shouldn’t<br />
be afraid of that, dental companies shouldn’t be afraid of<br />
that. Teeth being like tires, look at the challenges to the<br />
dentition with people living longer and keeping their teeth<br />
longer. We’d have a shifting demographic. We’d have less<br />
need to be addressing severe, early childhood caries. We<br />
would be working more on older people. But that would be<br />
a good problem, Mike.<br />
MD: I actually think that sounds like a great practice! In fact,<br />
most of the dentists I know who work on adult populations<br />
refer the kids out anyway. They don’t enjoy treating childhood<br />
caries. They prefer doing restorative dentistry on older patients.<br />
For dentists who say they want to do more esthetic dentistry, if<br />
you get rid of caries, a large part of it will be esthetic dentistry.<br />
So that sounds like a very modern, desirable way to practice. I<br />
like your vision of the future.<br />
DF: And if more families, even in lower socioeconomic<br />
groups, didn’t have to spend as much money addressing<br />
caries, they could potentially have more there, including<br />
the insurance companies they align with to help them get<br />
orthodontics for their kids. So you’d have more pediatric<br />
dentists doing more orthodontics, taking more ortho<br />
courses. There’s always going to be the need for it all, we<br />
just will be shifting to somewhat different demographics.<br />
But we’ll still need more dentists, Mike.<br />
MD: I think that’s such a noble effort that you’re putting forth<br />
toward doing that, especially for somebody from a restorative<br />
company — although, as you point out, it’s really not going to<br />
put anybody in dentistry out of business. Business will boom.<br />
It will just be a slightly different treatment modality than we<br />
practice today.<br />
It’s been fascinating hearing about UltraCem, especially<br />
because when I first looked at the product, honestly, without a<br />
bunch of the literature, I just thought that you had reinvented<br />
the dispensing system. But I really appreciate you informing<br />
me on the difference between the powder-liquid and the pastepaste<br />
cement. It’s nice to hear that you guys decided to go<br />
with the product that was the best clinical product available<br />
and not just chase the easier money and high convenience.<br />
You chose something that’s going to stand the test of time and<br />
ultimately benefit the patient.<br />
DF: That’s right. I think it’s important that the dentist sees<br />
it’s not just a fancy, fun mixer, but that it’s actually a superior<br />
cement.<br />
One other quick note on this: You know how frustrating<br />
it is if, say, there’s not adequate retention on a preparation<br />
and the crown comes off, but I’m sure you also know the<br />
most challenging of all cases when that occurs is when you<br />
have compromised retention on one abutment and good<br />
retention on the other and one side of the bridge comes<br />
loose. For dentists who are cementing crowns in which they<br />
have less-than-ideal vertical wall retention capabilities or<br />
any concern over one side of a bridge coming off, they<br />
can take that bond strength — which is a little more than<br />
double GC Fuji’s — and double it again simply by putting<br />
a little of our Peak on the preparation before they cement.<br />
MD: Interesting. That’s certainly an easy way to double the<br />
bond strength. And with the UltraCem, they get all the fluoride<br />
release as well, so they don’t have to make that compromise.<br />
DF: Yes, you are still getting the fluoride release, and you go<br />
from twice the bond strength of a GC Fuji to four times the<br />
bond strength. And the GC Fuji and UltraCem are higher in<br />
bond strength than the self-etching resin cements that are<br />
out there today. CM<br />
For more information on Ultradent, visit www.ultradent.com or call 888-230-1420.<br />
Interview with Dr. Dan Fischer43