Child-friendly minimum intervention dentistry (MID) dominates modern thinking and practice around delivery of oral care for children. It is an enormous challenge for our profession to move away from the narrow focus of a mechanistic, cavity-orientated surgical approach for managing dental caries to one which embraces new strategies for caries prevention and management, delivered in the context of a partnership with children, families and other adults involved in the child's life environment. It is also time for a shift in the orientation of dentistry towards 'patient self-care' becoming a core goal of dental care, where dentists help their patients assume responsibility for achieving and maintaining their own oral health, and that of their children. Holistic care, which improves oral health and maximises ability to maintain oral health, should be regarded with the same importance and rewarded with a similar level of remuneration as 'traditional operative dentistry'. This paper gives an overview of a model of care involving the principles of this new approach, and the application of MID in clinical practice for primary teeth.