Ep. 805 - Risk Is the New Diagnosis: Rethinking How We Practice Dentistry

Dentistry has become remarkably good at repairing disease. We restore teeth, replace missing teeth, treat periodontal disease, and manage the consequences of oral disease every day. But what if our greatest measure of success shouldn’t be how well we treat disease—but how effectively we prevent it from happening in the first place? Our guest today, Penny Hatzimanolakis, has spent decades thinking about and practicing dentistry in precisely this way. Penny has specialized in periodontics and prosthodontics since 1994 and joined the University of British Columbia’s dental faculty in 2002. She believes that understanding the why—the underlying risk factors that contribute to disease—can fundamentally change the way we practice. Instead of waiting for disease to appear and then treating it, what if we could identify risk earlier, intervene sooner, and practice truly proactive dentistry—preserving our patients’ natural teeth and tissues for as long as possible? Stay tuned for a fascinating conversation about what success in dentistry really means, and how a better understanding of risk can help us move from repairing disease to preventing it.