When you and your patients think of preventive dentistry you are really thinking about primary prevention, or prevention of disease before it occurs. Secondary and tertiary prevention will be explained in greater depth as you advance in our curriculum. For now, we want you to become familiar with primary prevention. Primary Prevention Secondary preventive efforts, like primary prevention, are heavily dependent on patient cooperation.
Secondary prevention is early diagnosis and treatment.
The vast majority of dental procedures are performed as secondary prevention. Quite simply, tertiary prevention is defined as rehabilitative dentistry. Tertiary prevention gives patients who are already dental cripples, a crutch for their disabling condition. When a dentists removes an abscessed tooth he or she is in one definition of the word, preventing disease. In essence the dentist is halting progression of infection and in a very real way eliminating pain.