Caring for the health of teeth and mouth increasingly goes in tandem with attention to aesthetics. This is the direction that technological advancements in the field of orthodontics and dentistry is taking. Most of the professionals in the field confirm this, and one of them was a guest of our University last week. On the initiative of Professors De Vico and Severino—both lecturers in Odontostomatological Diseases on the UniCamillus MSc Dentistry and Dental Prosthetics—Dr Domenico Massironi was invited to give a special talk on Friday 17 May in room 1of the UniLabs building.
Dr Massironi, who is a surgeon and specialist in Odontostomatology, is considered by the academic medical and scientific community to be one of the pioneers of some innovative working techniques in the field of aesthetic prosthetics. He has published a number of studies and has devoted several books to the use of surgical microscopes. One of his books, Estetica e Precisione, has been translated into several languages and has been adopted by UniCamillus students, who were therefore offered the opportunity to attend a fascinating lecture by a luminary in the field of orthodontic surgery.
‘Every procedure needs a learning curve, so starting from university to learn and use all the suitable tools is certainly an advantage from all points of view’, said Dr Massironi on the sidelines of his lecture, after taking a few photos with the students who attended. ‘I have been using the microscope in my daily clinical practice since 1989. It has been a choice that has profoundly changed the way I operate both in terms of quality and working time, reducing errors. Every single procedure in prosthetics requires rigour, which means precise sequential steps. Therefore, acquiring them at the beginning of your educational path represents an advantage that can lead to excellent results over the years. I have always performed therapies thinking that they would last forever; but it is obvious that this is not the case for all restorations, also because biology plays an important part in them. The idea of doing something that lasts over time, however, makes me feel good, especially in these times when ephemeral solutions are so common’.
The title of the lecture was ‘Function and Aesthetics in Prosthetic Rehabilitation’, a subject on which Dr Massironi is one of the leading international experts, to the extent that his studies and protocols are now known and adopted worldwide. His lectures are often hosted at the world’s most important scientific events.
‘The synergies between precisely researched prosthetic procedures and modern technology allow us to look at a new concept of prosthetics’, he explained to the students. ‘Indeed, technology is going hand in hand with what patients want, and patients are becoming increasingly demanding because they are urged by an aesthetically competitive environment’. One example is ‘the choice of adhesive restorations, as this allows the full exploitation of the therapeutic possibilities that adhesion and material studies offer today’. According to Dr Massironi, all the technological innovations nowadays ‘require clinicians to be familiar with the minimally invasive therapies that modern dentistry makes available, both from the point of view of materials and therapies. In this way, optimal results can be achieved for patients, creating a state of health that is the basis of aesthetics’. He then added: ‘Today we have materials on the market that can be processed with minimal thickness values, and this allows, for example, the preservation of healthy tissue where the clinical situation allows it. I have always believed in an ever-evolving dentistry, in the very sense of following the direction defined by technology—a kind of continuous challenge to seek the best for the patient’.
Dr Massironi’s entire medical and scientific career is based on a principle, refined over time, known as the ‘three Hs’, i.e. Heart, Head and Hands. A work philosophy which has become a distinctive trademark for him. He explains it so: ‘The triple H philosophy originates from a sentence by St. Francis of Assisi that I read a few years ago: “He who works with his hands is a workman; he who works with his hands and head is a craftsman; he who works with his hands, head and heart is an artist”. I like this idea of the artist with the heart in pole position: we can be great with our hands, but if we don’t connect them to the heart, therapy remains barren. I try to convey this message to my students. So, together with the preparation of the teeth, they see my therapies—respectful, rigorous, and sequential. I believe that in the end the key concept is clear: by precisely following each step of the prosthetic procedure, one can achieve results that obey the first H, the heart. Students understand that only in this way will their prosthesis be a success’.
