Interview with Dr. Mark Malterud — Academy of General Dentistry Region-10 Trustee

 

Interview with Dr. Mark Malterud

By Michael W. Davis, DDS | February 17, 2014

 

 

Dr. Mark Malterud has been practicing Minimally Invasive Restorative Dentistry for over 30 years in St Paul Minnesota. He has had the opportunity to help many patients achieve excellent oral health. His passion for Dentistry has led him into involvement into Organized Dentistry where he has been Minnesota’s President of the Academy of General Dentistry and has chaired at the National level, the AGD’s Council on Dental Education and is the current Region-10 AGD Board of Trustees member. He helped get the Academy of Biomimetic Dentistry up and running and sits on the Board of the World Congress of Minimally Invasive Dentistry. As a consummate student and innovator in Dentistry he has been invited and presented lectures around North America and the World. Mark@drmalterud.com

 

INTRODUCTION

Dr. Davis: Dr. Malterud, I’m honored to bring forth this interview. You’ve done a great deal facilitating education for the dental profession, which eventually serves the public interest. Services dentistry can provide patients today is greatly advanced, from 10-20 years ago. You have personally contributed to this wonderful progress, some of which I hope to expand upon with our discussion.

 

INTERVIEW

Dr. Davis: The dental profession today is exposed to newer concepts, such as “minimally invasive dentistry”. Over time, these principles are becoming accepted into dental university curriculums and the general practice of dentistry. Please explain to the average person, what is meant by minimally invasive dentistry and how it may benefit them. Please give a few specific examples, in our rethinking of traditional treatment protocols.

Dr. Malterud: I appreciate being asked to be interviewed for this column. As far as the meaning of Minimally Invasive Dentistry (MID), I can sum it up fairly easily. It is a philosophy that tooth structure is sacred and once removed it cannot be brought back. So, treat every lesion and problem from the perspective that we remove the problem (pathology) and restore it as definitively as we can with modern technology.

The reality is that whatever we place in the mouth to restore what has been lost will break down, and, in time, given enough use, will fail. However, technology, materials and techniques are constantly being developed, and, when the time comes for restorations to be replaced, we will have better materials to restore the tooth. I heard it once described as tooth banking by Dr. Ray Bertolotti and that is a good description.