Sir, in 2015, US President Barack Obama announced the launch of the Precision Medicine initiative. Given that genetics, environment, lifestyle, and diet all have an impact on health, it is an excellent endeavour that takes into account the distinctive biological blueprint that each human is born with.

The National Research Council's Toward Precision Medicine adopted the definition of precision medicine as 'The tailoring of medical treatment to the individual characteristics of each patient […] to classify individuals into subpopulations that differ in their susceptibility to a particular disease or their response to a specific treatment. Preventative or therapeutic interventions can then be concentrated on those who will benefit, sparing expense and side effects for those who will not'.1

Precision dentistry is a multifaceted, data-driven approach to oral and dental health care that uses individual genetic data to segregate and stratify individuals with similar genetic makeup into phenotypic groups to deliver precise or targeted treatment. The aforementioned approach to disease will eliminate the undue side effects of the conventional treatment which targets the 'average patient'.

The stark understanding of precision dentistry will necessitate sufficient global data collection, initial adequate funds for introducing technology for data collection, bio-banking, framing of data safety protocols, designing easy data access to corresponding individuals, and measures to implement genetic data to clinical practice. Once achieved, this will necessitate the introduction of the concept of 'precision dentistry' to the dental education system. We believe precision dentistry too will advance, taking cues from medical practices in their pursuit of precision medicine. Precision dentistry is the future and it is closer than you believe.