Epidemiologist with a global reputation in the field of oral health researchNo dentistry means unhealthy teeth; therefore more dentistry means healthier teeth. There may be some truth to the first fraction,but the epidemiologist Aubrey Sheiham, who has died aged 79, or questioned the second – and got into a heap of trouble for doing so. In 1977 he published a paper in the Lancet reviewing the evidence for the six-monthly dental check-up. He concluded that it may well attain more harm than great.
The more dentists looked the more they found; and the more they found the more they did,risking overtreatment. Aubrey highlighted the dangers of dentists intervening too quickly to fill a tooth; once a filling is placed it is highly likely to be replaced and as a consequence become larger and more complex over time. The evidence for some overtreatment was indisputable. display a group of dentists a set of x-rays of the teeth and the number of fillings they propose varies widely. They can’t all be true.
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Source: theguardian.com