Yours Toothfully by Dr Chan Joon Yee

“Doctor, why did my implant fail?”

“Erm … it’s a tactical decision to intercept the intruding aircraft to Changi Airport and cause 23 flight disruptions for nearly an hour …”

Oops. Wrong excuse. But seriously, it’s not always the dentist’s fault. Implants are not very good for the practitioner’s health. Every time an implant patient calls up, my heart would skip a beat. Most of the time, it’s a false alarm. Still, implant failures are pretty serious issues that can get a patient really angry.

Why? (and an often a very angry why), the question that only the practitioner needs to answer. I’m not trying to shirk responsibility, but very often, I think the implant suppliers need to answer a few questions too.

Let’s face it. The field of implant dentistry is now red hot. Save for few old and retiring professionals are still in denial and proclaiming that implant dentistry is still “experimental”, it won’t change the fact that implants will be THE thing in dentistry for many more years to come. But like every new technology out there, competitors in the business of producing implants are constantly under pressure to steal the limelight from their rivals in the industry.

Recently, the implant system I’ve been using quite frequently came out with a new prototype that claims to be even better than their already very good old component. The director of the supplying company personally handed me the components, telling me I was the first in Singapore to use it. She asked me to try it out give her my feedback. Well, it seemed that later users gave her the feedback before I did. The new prototype sucks. Fortunately, my patients did not suffer much from it. Just an extra trip to the lab. But the moral of the story is ought to be taken up by the other makers of implants.

Don’t innovate just for the sake of getting into the news with some new, “revolutionary” prototype when the old, tried and tested model has been working well for a long time. We’re talking about our patients’ well-being here. As dentists, we have no access to the details of the patented designs. All the theories behind these new prototypes are sound. It’s just that when put into people’s mouths, the research data does not mean anything.

The X and Y generation of surfers may not be so easily taken in by advertisements from the manufacturers, but their “we’re the best” messages are everywhere. First, our local suppliers get fooled. They in turn fool dentists who confidently use these products on their patients. At least the patients can choose to ignore advertisements. Dentists are made to attend continuing education seminars/exhibitions where sexy new innovations keep gyrating in front of them. Even cynics like me get fooled sometimes. It’s not that these products or systems are not reliable. It’s just that they are not as good as they’re claimed to be. The dentists are the ones carrying the baby, so to speak.

There isn’t one leading implant system which does not keep innovating to get into the news. But genuine breakthroughs in any field of science often take many years or even decades. How can there be so many breakthroughs and amazing new products being created within just a few years or even months? It all has to do with what I call “compulsory innovation” just like our continuing “education” which is really all about attending irrelevant, sleep-inducing lectures to collect points.

As our society progressed, we’ve been brainwashed into thinking that innovation, upgrading, continuing education and being first are always good things. People not in the civil service should know that things are not so simple in the real world. Trouble is, we don’t call the shots. In fact, we have little or no say over any of the compulsory requirements imposed on us. Happily, there is something which dentists can do to protect their patients. I recommend that we bring our mp3 players and opaque contact lenses to drown out everything we hear and see at seminars/exhibitions. I have learned more from books and the internet than any of these compulsory activities.

By the way, does anyone know that Singapore is the first … Well, let’s just say that this dental maverick will not walk but run from the next supplier who says: “Dr Chan, you’re the first in Singapore to try out …”