Minimal Intervention Dentistry or MID is a philosophy of professional care which focuses on preservation of natural tooth structure as much as possible. This approach focuses on control of Caries, tooth decay, focusing on early prevention of caries and other tooth ailments. It is essentially focused on patient’s welfare and aims at reducing patient’s anxiety in the process of dental treatment. It focuses on minimum invasive and health focused treatment of the patients. The approach is focused on controlling and keeping Dental caries at bay, where it focuses on curing, restoring and prevention of dental caries. The earlier approach of Dentistry which was the Restorative approach was based on restricted knowledge and focused on treating the symptoms such as removing the decay and surgically correcting the tooth. However Minimal Intervention has focused on integrating technological aspects and utilise new methods for better management and control of tooth decay. It focuses on early restoration so that the damage could be reversed.
The Minimal Intervention Dentistry is considered the future of dentistry because of many points such as-
- Approved by Concerning Authorities– It has been approved by the authorities who govern the dental field and its practises.
- Cost Effective– As it focuses on minimal invasion through surgery and other aspects which focus on cost-effective techniques for both the patient and the dentists.
- Less trauma for the patients– MID focuses on minimal intervention and reducing patient’s anxiety in the whole process of the treatment which guarantees the less trauma for the patients.
- Biological approach adopted– Minimal Intervention Dentistry focuses on Biological intervention instead of mechanical approach which is an added advantage of MID.
- Materials– MID makes significant demand on materials, which could be termed as positive aspect of it.
The Principles and Objectives of MID are mentioned below; effective implementation of MID requires these principles to be integrated effectively and efficiently-
· Recognition- The recognition aspect of Minimal Intervention Dentistry focuses on identifying the diseases or the ailments which could surround the patients. It focuses on assessment and ruling out the potential factors which could be there and analysis is done on things such as, Lifestyle of the patient, testing the Saliva, Diagnosing the Plaque, among other things. A proper diagnosis method is required to be employed so that the patient could be treated with correct procedure.
· Reduction- In this stage the recognition or the diagnosis which was done in the first stage is tried to reduce by employing various methods such as alteration of the lifestyle of the patients, altering the diet of the patients, making an alteration on the pH value of the whole mouth or the oral surroundings. The control of such Caries is focused as with the control of Caries we would be able to access proper care of teeth and avoidance of Caries.
· Regeneration- In this stage the area or the tissues which have suffered injuries are tried to make good through employing various mechanical and chemical way such as using fluorides, among other things.
· Repair- Although the concept of Minimal Intervention Dentistry focuses on employing surgical intervention only in some situation, but if there is presence of cavitations then surgical intervention is required. The approaches which are required to remove the caries and reverse the effect of caries are employed so that the effects which caries had could be reversed. For instance if the diseases has advanced to the extent that cavitations is there on the tooth surface, there is a requirement of some degree of employment of surgical intervention.
