Correspondence Address:
Kundabala Mala
Editor-in-Chief, Professor, Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Associate Dean, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal University, Mangalore, Karnataka
India

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Dear Readers,

In the 30 years on the course of my journey in dentistry, I have been hearing, watching and doing the same things, which my peers are, and predecessors were, doing. And as I teach my students, the same things are being repeated.

If we are making any difference for our patients, the credit should go to biomedical engineers and the technology they have devised. It is they who have helped us improve our diagnostic skills and augment our surgical techniques. Neither have the core concepts changed nor is there any truly path-breaking research happening. The quest for a surefire answer to the questions posed by oral cancers, and here let me be fair - all cancers - is still ongoing and cure proves difficult to achieve in all except really early stage disease. We are still battling osteomyelitis, aphthous stomatitis, and submucous fibrosis continue to irritate and perplex, and a remedy for that common malady, which affects all mankind, I mean dental caries, remains elusive.

In the era of hi-technology, it is time for us to think whether to rely on routine dental restorations or make the leap to genetic engineering and tissue regeneration techniques.

Gene therapy and stem cell therapy carry the promise of successfully treating many diseases that did not seem possible until not so long ago. Though gene therapy is being applied in the field of medicine, we in dentistry are lagging behind in utilizing its potential. Here I reiterate, it is time for us to find ways to prevent disease by preventing changes at cellular levels that progress to disease. Stem cell therapy is today's reality and while it is still in it's infancy, growth is inevitable and it's utility in dentistry is immense.

Nanotechnology is another modality that can be utilized in dental practice. Nanomaterials to replace the diseased dental tissue and nanotechnology for targeted drug therapy to attack target tissue cells are potential areas for application. With stem cell therapy, nanotechnology will be invaluable in tissue reconstruction after major resection of diseased tissue as in oral cancers and major inflammatory diseases like osteomyelitis, to name just a couple.

Constructive and dynamic research in these areas is essential for dentistry to make the leap into this era of technological wizardry and to provide real benefits to patients. Let us call upon dynamic and enthusiastic dentists for such path-breaking research to make this mission possible.

"Impossible is not something that cannot be done. It is just something that has not been done yet…."

What seems like magic today is the science of tomorrow!

I relinquish charge as Editor of this Journal with this issue. I thank the Editorial team, Reviewers, Publishers MEDKNOW and all the readers for their encouragement, support, and contributions. I wish future Editors all the very best in making this Journal bigger and better.