An Eventful Decade Gone,A New Decade Beckons

At the outset, wishing you all a very happy new year and a happy new decade. The past decade has certainly been eventful to say the least, with 2 aspects in my humble opinion taking the forerunner spots in defining not dentistry but orthodontics as well as digitization and online/social media marketing. While 3D computer-based informatics, design, and automated manufacturing has been on the horizon since the advent of the 21st century, there has certainly been a steadfast development and leap in this regard in the past decade, especially with respect to 3D-based diagnosis, treatment planning, and execution, along with the vast boom of social media in the past decade in our day-to-day lives. This has led to new avenues opening up for e-health and tele-health supplemented by new marketing algorithms primarily based on an individual’s online social activities. ¹ While we certainly live in an era of mass production, I humbly feel the era of customization is upon us. Steadfast technological advancements in 3D visualization and application not only have allowed a better comprehension of the facial and dental structures (both hard and soft tissues) but also have given the ability to some extent, gauge what effect the planned treatment may have on a given individual. This here represents a landmark shift in not only patient education but treatment planning as well, as this gives an option of customization and a degree of control for “tweaking” each individual based on individual preferences. The cost of 3D printing has also declined steadily over the past decade, making end-to-end result of a customized appliance more cost-effective and practical in the long run. This cost is only going to decline further, making customized appliances not only more affordable but also more logical in the long run. In the 1970s when Andrew introduced the straight wire appliances, the cumbersome-yet-extensive inventory was meant to serve an ulterior purpose: minimize or eliminate wire bending altogether. The key missing was the individual customization of each appliance, which several companies like Insignia ² and SureSmile ³ are providing claiming that the “off the mill” straight wire appliance cannot be a one shoe that fits all sizes; truth be told it isn’t. However, for an average practitioner and an average patient, the drastic cost increase was a bitter pill to swallow and digest, especially in a place like India that makes customization’s cost seem unnecessary, impractical, and to some extent illogical. But as stated as above, the inevitable cost reduction will pave way for a new treatment paradigm shift.

Coming onto the marketing forefront, the usage of “cookies” is not new on the digital marketing forum, with websites such as Google, Facebook, etc. using such cookies to customize and display ads based on your online social behavior. The same has and I feel will be utilized maximally to actively target and counsel potential patients using a similar algorithm, with the assumption that they consent their cookies to be used for such activities: a common practice by most websites now. While this has been on the rise in the past decade, this was not the customized marketing approach that was fascinating. There is a Google patent titled “A method for targeted advertising comprising obtaining genomic data of an individual, correlating the genomic data to a personal trait of said individual and addressing advertising material to said individual based on said personal trait.” ⁴ This patent highlights what level the thinking curve has reached for targeted marketing. While we were taught that some of our traits are genetically controlled and determined, never in our minds did we think that the same would be used as a marketing tool. Just think of this as a potential scenario, based on our blood sample, a class II or Class III patient may be approached for functional/orthopedic/orthognathic treatment options depending on the age and underlying prevailing condition (some gene polymorphisms like Myosin H1 cause mandibular prognathism). ⁵ I believe we have simply just scratched the surface in this regard and who knows what the future holds and beckons, exciting and intimidating at the same time.

Here also at this outset, I would like to reiterate our Honorable President Dr Silju Mathew’s message for the coming year: the JIOS is taking a leap forward by applying for PubMed and Scopus indexing. In this regard, I humbly seek the blessings and support from all the readers and patrons of the journal by citing and referencing the articles in all of their respective submissions to other esteemed journals. This continued support would yield, I hope, fruitful results in the coming years for both the journal and the JIOS, as different editors may come and go, the journal’s development should be the core agenda. Thus, to this end, here’s to a new decade, a fruitful decade for the IOS and its wonderful members.

Jai hind, Jai IOS