The Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) has issued a response to the American Academy of Implant Dentistry's (AAID) recent advice that patients should elect not to save a tooth but to extract and replace the tooth with a dental implant.
"It is important to note extracting a tooth and replacing it with a dental implant, while best for some, may not always be the best type of treatment for all patients," said AGD President David Halpern, D.M.D., F.A.G.D., in a press release. "The state of oral health and the needs of each patient are unique as his or her fingerprint."
General dentists, as primary oral healthcare providers, recognize the treatment needs and balance the patient's desires in developing individualized treatment plans that address those needs and wants, he noted.
"In my practice, I encourage patients to save the natural tooth when possible," Dr. Halpern said. "Doing so can many times preserve the supporting bone, maintain the proper contacts to the adjacent and opposing teeth, and allow the patient to use the tooth for as many years as their other teeth. It used to be common practice to remove injured or diseased teeth. Maintaining a tooth through a root canal treatment can help people keep their natural teeth for life. Depending on your area that you live in, restoring and saving a tooth may cost less than replacing a tooth with a dental implant supported replacement."
In 2008, the AGD's House of Delegates issued a policy that supported that dental implants are an accepted mode of treatment to replace a lost tooth. In 2009, it passed guidelines for educational providers to use toward developing curricula that will prepare dentists, regardless of generalization or specialization, to provide safe and appropriate dental implant treatment planning, placement, and restoration.
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