CPP  White  Paper:  Summary  for  Microsite  

 

The  CPP  White  Paper  on  Dental  Caries  Prevention  and  Management  responds  to  the  dental  profession’s  ethical  responsibility  to  use  the  best  available  evidence  to  deliver  caries  care.  In  13  steps,  it  details  the  knowledge  and  tools  needed  to  adopt  an  evidence-­‐based,  contemporary  approach  to  dental  caries  prevention  and  management.  

The  first  nine  sections  focus  on  clinical  aspects,  and  how  the  dentist  can  deliver  the  best  caries  care  to  the  patient.  These  include:  

• Caries  risk  factors  and  related  conditions.  • The  causes,  development  and  measurement  of  caries.  • Detecting  caries  in  a  patient  and  assessing  the  need  for  treatment.  • Determining  a  patient’s  risk  of  caries.  • The  prevention  of  caries,  and  the  prevention  of  caries  progression.  • Preserving  tooth  tissue  and  minimally-­‐invasive  interventions.  • A  systematic  approach  to  caries  management  –  from  determining  risk  to  performing  the  right  

intervention.  

The  next  four  sections  of  the  White  Paper  look  at  issues  beyond  the  clinic.  The  authors  suggest  ways  in  which  financing  of  dental  care,  collaboration  within  the  dental  team,  methods  for  advancing  dental  care  and  data  collection  can  be  improved.      

Finally,  the  authors  give  a  call  to  action  for  these  effective  caries  prevention  and  management  strategies  to  be  put  into  practice.  Necessary  actions  include:  

• Support  for  caries  prevention  at  both  the  individual  and  population  levels.  • A  shift  in  clinical  practice  to  focus  on  early  detection  of  caries  and  evidence-­‐based,  tooth-­‐

preserving  preventive  caries  management.  • Review  of  dental  education  to  ensure  it  reflects  up-­‐to-­‐date  knowledge.  • Integration  of  oral  health  within  general  health,  and  promotion  of  ‘good  oral  health  as  

everyone’s  business’.  • Re-­‐thinking  of  the  financing  of  dental  care  to  incentivise  preventive  caries  management.  • Improvement  of  data  collection  to  better  measure  prevention  needs  and  successes.      

These  actions  cover  many  different  fields  and  will  need  the  involvement  of  multiple-­‐stakeholders,  but  the  dental  community  has  a  role  to  play  in  driving  all  of  them  forward.  As  the  authors  note,  evidence  on  adequate  dental  caries  and  management  has  accumulated  in  recent  years,  but  translation  to  practice  has  been  slow.  Now  is  the  time  to  move  from  restoration  to  prevention.