Dutch winner of award hopes boost of ART in China

To implement his method in China, the next step is to make use of the clinical research results and to teach ART in schools to influence the minds of the youngsters in the profession, Prof. Frencken told Xinhua.

"The mindset of dentists has to change. Currently they might rather pick the newest high-tech tools to fix a problem than opt for the low-tech ART approach," he said. "But some drills move so fast that the cavities only become bigger, so you loose healthy tooth material and make the tooth weak. If you start destroying teeth unnecessarily early on, they will fall out when people get older."

For his colleague Prof. Nico HJ Creugers, from the Department of Oral Function & Prosthetic Dentistry, to change the current mindset means to adopt a new mentality towards technology.

"Dental care in China seems to be going in the direction of higher technology, which is more expensive and less accessible. There is a big temptation to do a lot while not really focusing on the problem. ART goes the other direction: it focuses on the problem, it does what is necessary in a correct and easy way, and it is accessible for everybody," he told Xinhua.

With an evident eagerness to pursue and deepen their cooperation with China, the Dutch specialists also listed some suggestions of work that still has to be done, such as a more balanced distribution of funding between laboratory research and clinical research, as well as a better design of health insurances covering dental care.

"It is our mission to make what we know available for many people, and we have ideas on how to keep continuing the implementation of ART in China. It would be very nice if it gets a boost because of this prize," said Prof. Frencken.