REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION OF AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RESTORATIVE DENTISTRY

While the development of new knowledge is proceeding, it is also important to recognize and use the knowledge we think we have now. We have had the capability, for many years, of preventing the loss of most teeth from caries and periodontal disease if we would only use what we know about diet, fluoridation, oral hygiene, and what we have learned about function from gnathology. Unfortunately, diagnosis and treatment planning is the most neglected area in dental practice. If a fraction of the time, effort, expense, and intelligence was applied to prevention that is brought to bear on dental problems to make the recovery, some real progress would be made. Many of you, I know, have been accomplishing comprehensive oral care for years rather than temporizing so that the teeth can be lost comfortably. It is no wonder that so many people have been resigned to the eventual loss of all of their teeth. We have broken dental teaching up into manageable segments for convenience, now we are trying to unite them again with the total care concept. However, all is not drab, and there is an encouraging gradual change toward using some of the procedures more generally that have been found, clinically, to be very effective for a long time. © 1969 The C. V. Mosby Company.