When patients require support for an oral health concern, be it pain and discomfort or an aesthetic issue, they will need to find a dental professional they can rely on. Of course, searching the internet may be the first port of call, offering easier access to high quality information from our smartphones, but nothing matches the direct guidance of a trusted clinician.
The same can be said for dental professionals looking for advice on the optimal restorative dental materials to use in a given clinical situation. The insights offered from experienced clinicians who actively use such solutions can be extremely useful, alongside demonstrations and hands-on experience with trial products.
Clinicians should recognise why advice and reviews from peers can be helpful when making decisions that potentially affect clinical outcomes, as well as understand what they want to know exactly about everyday restorative materials.
Why we look to advice
Dental professionals learn their trade in academic institutions under the guidance of experienced clinicians. This creates opportunities to develop an understanding based on a tutor’s previous experiences and developed knowledge. The preference for insights that are supported by experienced peers then continues long into professional life.
A 2019 study found that general dentists who pursue formal advanced training are inclined to prefer peer-reviewed journals as opposed to other publications.[i] With experience, clinicians often then develop a preference for curated and more-condensed materials.i
However, the same study went on to say that dental professionals show a preference for interpersonal sources over all others.i This means that daily access to other dental colleagues can reduce the importance of print resources (both peer-reviewed and otherwise) when locating new information, be that on clinical techniques, new workflows, or innovative solutions.
Why are the thoughts of peers so important? Firstly, clinicians will be able to provide nuanced insights into how to make the most of a solution. Dental professionals perform a unique clinical role, and often times those who carry out similar daily tasks can seem like the only people who understand what makes a difference, be it in the handling of a solution, or how simple it is to store, alongside the clinical results. Clinicians who recommend a solution or service are also connecting the care that they provide with an item, and such an endorsement can carry weight, especially from well-known figures in the professional space.
Personal checklist
Each dental professional will have their own unique demands of a restorative solution. This can come from experience in everyday care, where previous treatments have highlighted an aspect of a product that can be key to success. For example, when looking for a reliable adhesive solution, a dental professional may appreciate a level of radiopacity that reduces the risk of misdiagnosed secondary caries in the future. Many dental adhesives are radiolucent in a radiograph, creating the opportunity for misdiagnoses and invasive retreatment – this creates discomfort for the patient, and may demand more of their time and money to replace a restoration.[ii]
Recognising which properties of a restorative solution are particularly important can enable clinicians to seek out recommendations that highlight such concerns, and potentially present new key points that hadn’t previously been considered.
This can also help dental professionals find trusted brands that consistently aim to tackle everyday clinical problems, and provide effective solutions that make a material difference to care. When such solutions are paired with positive testimonials from professionals that use them regularly, clinicians can be even more confident in the investment in their practice.
Solutions you can trust
Finding reliable recommendations is possible in a variety of ways. Firstly, prominent awards within dentistry will often be decided by those in the profession, and may highlight both long-standing solutions, and new items that can change your care immediately. Clinicians will also be able to find testimonials online and in print materials, with recorded video recommendations allowing professionals to note their preferences and often show a given material in use.
Solventum, formerly 3M Health Care, understands the value that insights from professional peers can have when choosing high-quality restorative materials. This is why they present ‘Peer power: Sharing success’, which highlights the thoughts of leading dental professionals Dr. Claire Burgess, Dr. Chris O’Connor and Dr. Akit Patel regarding the award-winning 3M™ Scotchbond Universal Plus Adhesive and 3M™ RelyX™ Universal Resin Cement. Each can be used separately for a variety of clinical indications, but together they create an enhanced bond to all dental substrates, for long-lasting restorations. Each professional’s unique insights and experiences can be found online.
Every day, dental professionals make decisions based on the guidance of others. It’s simple to see why, with the importance placed on clinical insights alongside personal demands of restorative materials, each coming together to improve the patient experience.
To learn more about Solventum, please visit https://www.solventum.com/en-gb/home/oral-care/
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About Solventum
Solventum, enabling better, smarter, safer healthcare to improve lives. As a new company with a long legacy of creating breakthrough solutions for our customers’ toughest challenges, we pioneer game-changing innovations at the intersection of health, material and data science that change patients’ lives for the better while enabling healthcare professionals to perform at their best. Because people, and their wellbeing, are at the heart of every scientific advancement we pursue. We partner closely with the brightest minds in healthcare to ensure that every solution we create melds the latest technology with compassion and empathy. Because at Solventum, we never stop solving for you.
[i] Melkers, J., Hicks, D., Isett, K. R., Kopycka-Kedzierawski, D. T., Gilbert, G. H., Rosenblum, S., … & National Dental PBRN Collaborative Group. (2019). Preferences for peer-reviewed versus other publication sources: a survey of general dentists in the National Dental PBRN. Implementation Science, 14(1), 19.
[ii] Garcia, I. M., Leitune, V. C. B., Takimi, A. S., Bergmann, C. P., Samuel, S. M. W., Melo, M. A., & Collares, F. M. (2020). Cerium dioxide particles to tune radiopacity of dental adhesives: Microstructural and physico-chemical evaluation. Journal of functional biomaterials, 11(1), 7.
