The Monitor Practice Program: implications for dentistry and dental education

The restorative model of care, known colloquially as drilling and filling, has been challenged on the basis of its inappropriateness. The Caries Management System protocol was developed as an evidence-based strategy for non-surgical treatment of caries lesions and the Monitor Practice Program was designed to test the hypothesis that use of the protocol would reduce risk of dental caries experience. After 7 years, patients attending intervention practices, compared with those attending control practices, needed: 30%-50% fewer restorative interventions; 55% fewer first time restorative interventions; 32% fewer repeat restorative interventions; and were only 23% as likely to be classified as high risk. The outcome was cost-effective and patients attending intervention practices highly valued non-invasive care, and intervention dentists derived professional satisfaction from non-surgical caries management. The implications of the program are that the general public will likely embrace the benefits of non-invasive caries management, as will many current and future dental practitioners. This calls for dental practice reform including: the establishment of a clinical discipline in cariology; cariology curriculum development; revised accreditation regulations for cariology programs in dental schools; advanced training in clinical cariology leading to a specialty; support from the dental profession; and public health advocacy.