Biological cost 🍀

I like to say that in dentistry, "A lot of water has flowed under the bridge."

The evolution of dentistry over time has been enormous. Today, dentists think twice, even five times, before extracting a tooth because we have so many tools at our disposal to keep our precious teeth functioning properly.

When we analyze the approach we'll take in a case, in a matter of seconds, many factors flash through our minds, such as: How much tooth structure do I remove? What material should I choose? Do I perform the restoration directly or indirectly? What will the prognosis be? And the list of "ifs" becomes endless.

Every time we find ourselves in this situation (which is always), the patient's financial situation is a decisive factor. It's important to note that a patient's financial situation should never be the deciding factor for the dentist in choosing the treatment they believe is best, but we know it is a decisive factor when the patient decides to accept the treatment.

But there is a more important cost than the economic cost of a treatment: the biological cost.

The biological cost is directly related to the invasiveness of the treatment and refers to the amount of tooth structure the dentist is willing to sacrifice to achieve the treatment they deem appropriate.

If a high biological cost is directly related to the invasiveness of a treatment, we should aim to analyze our cases using approaches such as additive dentistry or minimally invasive dentistry.

This is no longer a new concept; trends like minimally invasive dentistry are being applied in all branches of dentistry, from micro-access chambers in root canal treatments and microsurgery to micro-preparations for veneers and biomimetic dentistry.

In biological cost, every thousandth of tooth structure counts; this is one of the reasons why in many of my Instagram videos I talk about the need to use magnifying glasses or magnifying lenses to work, because we must see better in order to "touch" less.

When a dentist removes tooth structure with their drill bits, they are not only weakening the tooth but also reducing its lifespan, and that's something we should never forget: the greater the biological cost, the shorter the lifespan of a tooth. ☠️

Our profession is infinitely beautiful, and one of the things that makes it beautiful is that we are our own bosses and we are the ones who make the decisions about what we consider to be the best treatment for our patients' teeth. That's why I say that it's in the daily routine of the dental office where the dentist plays the game of chess that will determine the future of many teeth.

Let's approach our patients as if we were treating our own mouths. Something that helps me stay grounded when making a decision about a case is asking myself:

"Is this the treatment I would have done for myself?"

I hope you find this information useful, best regards!

Dr. Marvin