This book is written by and for general practitioners in dentistry, who are not afraid to be artists as well as scientists, for whom being labelled a ‘fine technician’ is a compliment, not an insult, and who put their patients’ best interests above all else. It is based on the reality that clinicians must draw on shared experience and intuition as well as data, because the data alone may not always lead to the best treatment choice for a given patient. To understand this, one must accept, or at least understand, some basic premises about the nature of dentistry, and some critical differences between medicine and dentistry. Every dentist should know these things, practice them daily, and encourage family and loved ones to do the same. Patients deserve no less, and those patients who are willing to practice preventive dental care with reasonable diligence will have little or no dental disease in need of treatment. Dentists can, have, and continue to ‘work themselves out of a job,’ through the enthusiastic and consistent practice of preventive dentistry.