Patient-Based Dentistry: Personalized Therapy and Prevention

Dear Colleagues,

Some of the best advancements in medicine include artificial intelligence, data analysis and its management, molecular diagnostics, human genome sequencing, oral microbiome, and biology systems. These innovations are mainly aimed at developing a new breed of clinical methodologies towards treatment improvements while minimizing adverse events. Through these improvements, we can also enhance targeted therapies in oral hygiene and medicine and oral surgery . Customizable and individual procedures in oral hygiene are intended for the prevention and treatment of gingivitis, periodontitis, and peri-implantitis with a patient-based approach.

Personalized dentistry is an approach to both preventive care and therapeutic strategy, and both dental hygienists and dentists in this research scenario play a central role. Dental professionals are sentinel of oral health status, as they can observe the health and disease of the oral cavity, with particular attention to mineralized and soft tissues, making sure to identify the risk factors deriving from incorrect lifestyles and systemic diseases. “One size does not fit all” is the paradigm of personalized medicine—our patients are not all the same. Research efforts are heading toward tailoring medical treatment to the individual characteristics of each patient.

The understanding of oral microbiome composition shows that its variation can be predictive of both health and disease. A deeper understanding of oral microbiome taxonomy can change our attitude toward antibiotics prescription and use, especially when their overuse leads to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant species. Most disorders are multifactorial, with epigenetic and multiple genetic, lifestyle, and environmental risk factors that play a role in the clinical manifestation of the disease. These diseases include civilization diseases inter alia diabetes, permanent inflammatory conditions, cancer, and hypertension and all have different oral health aspects. In this clinical scenario, it becomes clear that “one size does not fit all”, when speaking about the therapy strategies. Patient-based medicine needs to identify robust biomarkers of the different clinical conditions to stratify the endotypes of the disease.

This Special Issue does not place specific restrictions on research to allow all topics relating to personalized medicine in the field of dentistry to be accepted.

Prof. Dr. Gianna Maria Nardi
Prof. Dr. Roberto Felice Grassi

Guest Editors

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