Fundamentals of Treatment Planning. Lino Calvani
the three years of training in all United States postgraduate prosthodontics specialty programs, students must become knowledgeable in the comprehensive treatment of clinical cases for missing or deficient teeth and oral and maxillofacial tissue in order to competently find solutions and cures using biocompatible substitutes. The focus is on the following areas:
1. Patient assessment (both medical and dental history).
2. Extraoral and intraoral examination.
3. Radiologic assessment and occlusal analysis.
4. Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) assessment.
5. Systemic, infectious, and neoplastic disease screening (education for prevention).
6. Diagnosis.
7. Risk assessment and prognosis.
8. Treatment planning.
9. Comprehensive treatment.
10. Outcomes assessment and delivery.
11. Follow-up and maintenance.
As professionals, we ‘profess’ to believe in who we are and what we do. As the Mission Statement of the American College of Prosthodontics states: “Prosthodontists are specialists in the restoration and replacement of missing teeth and oral/facial structures with natural, esthetic, and functional replacements. This includes surgical implant placement, the simple to most complex implant-supported restorations, laboratory and clinical training in esthetics/cosmetics, crowns, bridges, veneers, inlays, removable complete and partial dentures, dental implants, TMD-jaw joint issues, traumatic injuries to the mouth’s structures, congenital or birth anomalies and/or teeth, snoring and sleep disorders, as well as oral cancer, prosthetic reconstruction, and continuing care. Prosthodontists are experts in treatment planning.”
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Past, present, and future of treatment planning
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
George Santayana (1863–1952)
“The past should be read with the eyes of present time.”
Charles Darwin (1809–1882)
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
William Faulkner (1897–1962)
The author believes it is important to understand history not so much as a chronicle of events but in terms of the value we attach to and derive from these events. In this way, we arrive at the significance of the events. When we look back, we understand that for long millennia our civilization was not able to conceive or understand