Personalized Oral Medicine and the Contemporary Health Care Environment

There are major drivers required to realize the “tipping point” for personalized oral medicine—the scientific foundation, proof of principle to precede implementation, and a cultural and economic environment that celebrates innovation and emphasizes quality and cost-effective health prevention. In Malcolm Gladwell’s acclaimed book The Tipping Point, he argues that success, such as emergence of Social Security legislation in the mid-1930s, Medicare and Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s, the recently enacted Affordable Health Care Act, and even personalized oral medicine, is dependent on people with social gifts at a specific time and place in history. We are about to reach the “tipping point” when society, patients, health policy and governments, industry, and health professionals embrace personalized diagnosis, treatment plans, therapeutics, and procedures that optimize comprehensive and cost-effective health care with predictable outcomes for all people. The completion of the Human Genome Project (HGP), recent cost-effective and rapid whole genome-wide sequencing methods, and instrumentation, along with bioinformatics to handle and annotate data collections, enable clinicians to formulate decisions based upon the patient’s genotype and phenotype. Despite challenges, now is the time for health professionals to prepare for personalized oral medicine through pre- and postgraduate education programs.