Mental health articles

Delivery of Care and Goals of Dental Disease Management
The management of oral disease is mostly provided through individual treatment providers in ambulatory settings. Treatment providers are mostly general dentists, while orthodontic services are almost exclusively
offered by specialists. Oral surgical procedures are mostly performed on an outpatient basis while extensive maxillofacial interventions are carried out in specialized hospitals.
The ultimate goal of managing dental disease is the ‘restitutio ad integrum’. This may be achieved for some infectious diseases and low-grade trauma to soft and hard tissues and functional illnesses such as myofascial
pain. However, for the restorative disciplines a complete
restoration of the initial state is impossible, thus the goal mostly has been reduced to a disease free state of hard and soft tissues. In addition, for most restorative and prosthodontic (including periodontal and implant)
treatment, goals can be expressed in terms of survival
of the treated tooth or the restoration. However, survival does not reflect the patient perspective. This is achieved using patient based ratings of satisfaction, chewing ability (or function), oral comfort, ability to speak and of
esthetics. Furthermore, oral health related quality of life can be measured using specific questionnaires.

Tags: care, dental disease