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There have been many predictions about the end of dentistry over the last couple decades. Some day there will be a solution that gives us the perfect dental health cure. It will be dispensed at McDonalds like a DVD movie! It will be here very shortly. The minute after the common cold is cured, the hour after the heart-safe-instant anti-obesity pill is introduced and day after the devil throws salt over his ice covered doorstep. With just one statistic, I can crush this propensity for dental health positive predictions. But I believe it is better to start with reality if we really want progress. If you want reality-based results, read on. Before I get to the fun dental stuff - what you have come here for - I need to throw in some real life - from mine... First, it has been a while since I have uploaded a story. Losing two people in my life--20 days apart--late last summer took a lot out of me. Hopefully, I stick with it. Shine the light of truth where others fear to visit and bring some humor into this world of ignorance-running-rampant bliss. Second, I need to thank my cohort in blogging. He sent me the following dentistry related Washington Post story link that got me back on dental blog wagon: Future of Dentures in Fast Decay/A Moment Of Tooth. At times after those late summer days, it felt like there was no way back. Then an email with a link to a story straight from dental fairydom gets me back on the road to shoving some reality into the lore of our dental health future... Now, put your electric toothbrush on cruise, take your dentures out of that beer stein (throw a few back), put your fluoride gargles on, and suspend your dental fears so you can party like there is no dentist appointment tomorrow! Remember that scary statistic I mentioned earlier in this dentistry diatribe? Before I dental-visit-it on you - think twice about swallowing this blues colored liquid. Not everyone can deal with a heavy dose of limited, dental techno value. Try something else... Google a recipe. Buy a book. Rent a movie. Still here? This is it. From 1996 to 2004 the percentage of people visiting the dentist did not increase (source: seniorjournal.com) That sad fact should put the hurts to that find-an-easy-way-out tooth growing thing being flaunted in this Washington Post story. I am not sure if there is much wisdom in this story. Sorry, big time media, you got it wrong. Sometimes the tooth hurts. The future dental fairy might be on the way, but until she or the molar-nator fix the reality side of our world, technology will only be a blip on the screen of dental health value. Before we get the high tech dentistry checkup and dental health brain implant, we dental consumers (or non-consumers of dentistry) need a reality shakeup. The Washington Post dental story, Future of Dentures in Fast Decay/A Moment Of Tooth, about growing teeth, promises a better future. While the woman from Texas, noted in the story, who is now in Alabama might be the first family on our road to have a bionic tooth brood, it makes more sense to get the basic stuff right first. Like growing some reality chops. For example: in Texas 17 percent of people age 65 or older have no teeth. In Alabama, 32 percent are doing the missing teeth - did not floss boogie blues. See more stats: Teeth Go Bye Bye By State Save your kids' da Vinci dental code. Harvest her stun guns or gum stems. Bank his dental caries anti-spawn. But in the end - getting more of our kids to the dentist twice a year would do more for our society as a whole. No breakthroughs in molar farming or incisor pickling required. Of course, promoting and forking over the bucks for overall public health improvement is not as sexy as growing teeth and other high tech busyness, which big time media like to--sound bite me--and you with every once in a while to show they care. Rather than fall for the old media's, old story, about the tooth fairy once again... I propose we develop a sexy public health initiative to get more of us to do the right dental care thing. For the guys... The Playboy Bunny Dental Care and Cuddle Club. For the ladies... the Brad Pitt Eye Tooth Candy Shop and Floss To It Till it Feels Good Playland. I'm sure there are other ways to spin this concept, but this is my imagination--so I will leave it there. I love technology. The cool gadgets. The possibility of finding a cure for everything. It's just that the magic bullet fantasy often keeps us from doing the real work. KISS this, as they say. Sincerely RAC The Dental Blogger with too many punchlines or was it... The Dental Blogger with a punch drunk typist or... The Dental Blog with a punk writing on a fine line or... The Dental Blog that's pun slinging all the time or... I'm done.