Minimal Invasive Dentistry: An Emerging Trend

When first introduced, the term Minimal Intervention Dentistry (MID) referred to use of smaller and more conservative cavity preparations. Today, concept is much broader, being a philosophy of care related to risk assessment of individual patients, early detection of oral disease, targeted preventively orientated strategies and limited surgical intervention appropriate to level of disease1-3. “Extension for prevention” which was previously taught has been changed to “Prevention of extension”. Though concept of MID has been stressed upon for more than a decade, but its uptake has not been global. MID should be the standard of care in modern dentistry, as it avoids over-zealous restorative interventions as well as supervised neglect. As dental profession worldwide grapples with challenges of dealing with high rates of dental diseases in socially disadvantaged and medically compromised patients, it is even more important to incorporate these concepts into practice to deal with challenge of management of oral diseases. This review focuses on the concept and techniques of minimal invasive dentistry as an emerging trend in paediatric dentistry. Keywords: paediatric dentistry, MID