J Korean Acad Oral Health.  2022 Dec;46(4):159-160. 10.11149/jkaoh.2022.46.4.159.

A time to explore the future of prevention

• KMID: 2537808
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.11149/jkaoh.2022.46.4.159

Abstract

“Prevention” means preemptively stopping diseases from occurring. As we began to become aware of the existence of diseases and their causes, we may have been progressively interested not only in treating diseases, but also preventing their occurrences. Furthermore, doctors who prevent diseases are said to be more skillful than the doctors who treat them. It may be because most diseases documented in human history have been infectious diseases, and people who either faced life-and-death hardships, or have suffered from the sacrifice of close people, would have considered the prevention of the occurrence of diseases as paramount. With the occurrence and evolution of humanity, and prolonged changes over generations, the risk of infectious diseases has decreased while the occurrence of chronic diseases has increased. The concept of prevention has changed toward a form of managing chronic diseases along with infectious diseases. Even oral diseases, which were known as infectious diseases, appeared mostly in the form of chronic diseases, as such, oral health scholars practiced methods to prevent oral diseases by focusing on the management of chronic diseases. However, the perspective of facing and viewing diseases has deeply changed since experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic. Although newly emerging infectious diseases still threaten us, that does not mean that the occurrence of chronic diseases has decreased. Despite the rise of a new threat, i.e., large-scale infection, which restricted movement and contact, it was possible to substitute the functions of modern society via digital technology. In a time in which human-to-human contact is considered a threat, digital medicine has gradually presented itself as a new alternative. Although most dental services are conducted in-person, it is becoming sufficiently possible to deliver oral disease management methods through digital technology. Oral care products, equipment, and functional foods, which are being developed every year, are expanding their domain to the extent that it is difficult to distinguish between the domains of treatment and prevention. Now, there will be predictably be gradual changes to the era wherein the treatment and management of diseases could only be performed in dental clinics. Above all, the recipients of oral health have changed. They have realized the importance of health, and their ability to use digital technology has also increased. Of course, this needs to be rigorously verified above anything, however, new preventive methods and technology are being continually reported. Most dental clinics persist in using preventive methods that were introduced in the early 20th-century; moreover, it is difficult to say that the dentist-patient relationship has greatly deviated from the past. It may be difficult for the current preventive dentistry and oral health to accommodate the recipients of a new era that has evolved one-step further. Hence, now is the time to properly explore the future of prevention.