In a recent seminar attended by a group of highly trained “biomimetic” dentists, a world-famous clinician and educator said this: “The best dentistry is no dentistry at all.”

Wow, what was he saying?

The main point was simply this: An excellent dentist should provide only the minimal amount of treatment necessary to keep teeth healthy, alive, comfortable and functioning properly. Prevention of disease and minimally invasive dental care were the key words in his presentation.

Factually, teeth are living, vital and complicated parts of a healthy body, not just hard rocklike, objects in our mouths. Like other tissues of the body, given the proper minimal care necessary and good infection-control techniques, a tooth can actually heal naturally and be functional for a lifetime.

Most people would never think of having surgery on their knee, hip or shoulder using a technique from the late 1800s, or even developed in the late 1900s. We expect our care to be based on cutting-edge 21st-century medical research, with an emphasis on being minimally invasive in the surgery. We want our bodies to heal as naturally as possible. Yet the preparation and filling of diseased teeth commonly done is largely based on traditional methods first introduced in 1889. Even some newer techniques used widely in dentistry are based on ideas from the late 1970s up to about 1990. These techniques often require the removal of excessive amounts of healthy tooth structure and placement of materials that don’t closely match the properties of the natural teeth.

One such treatment is the placement of full crowns on damaged teeth. This process gained widespread popularity in the late 1970s and continues all around us even today. Modern research shows these full-coverage crowns are almost always unnecessary and destroy far too much healthy tooth structure in the process. Additionally, a high percentage of these full crowns eventually lead to tooth death and root canals being needed.

Conversely, biomimetic dentistry is all about saving as much natural tooth structure as possible. “Biomimetic” techniques are designed to avoid tooth loss, root canals and full crowns. The goal is to remove only the diseased tissue, then recreate natural tooth anatomy by including specific underlying, high-quality materials, including Kevlar ribbon to closely match the flexibility and elasticity teeth naturally have. Then a second set of materials is used to match the hardness on the outside necessary to mimic natural teeth in function. More quality time is taken with each step of the process to ensure the restoration and preservation of your natural teeth structure for a lifetime.