‘A profession with amnesia’: why dentistry must rediscover its purpose 

Miguel Stanley tells Guy Hiscott why dentistry has to find its purpose again – and why the future is bright if it can.

Sitting down to discuss the future of dentistry with someone like Dr Miguel Stanley, you expect strong views. The trailblazing clinician behind Lisbon’s world-renowned White Clinic and founder of the Slow Dentistry movement has built a reputation for saying what others won’t. 

But even with that expectation, it’s clear from the outset that this is a conversation about something deeper than trends or technology. 

‘We are a profession with amnesia,’ he says. ‘We’ve forgotten many times the importance of our craft.’ 

It is a line that underpins his whole ethos. A belief that dentistry has, over time, lost sight of what it is supposed to be – and, in doing so, limited what it could become. 

At the centre of his argument is a shift in identity. 

He asks: ‘When did we stop thinking as physicians of the oral cavity? When did we stop thinking about immunology and limit our intervention on the human anatomy to mechanics? 

‘We’ve been trained to look at dentistry as mechanics of the mouth. We don’t really think about subclinical, low-grade, chronic infection or inflammation above and beyond simple periodontal disease.’ 

The consequence, Miguel argues, is a profession that has become disconnected – from wider healthcare, from its own clinical potential, and from the biological realities that underpin oral disease. 

A profession shaped by compromise