Help Patients Control The Disease

Periodontal-structured hygiene maintenance visits allow the patient to properly control the disease and, in the event there are flare-ups (increased numbers or bleeding points), it is possible to immediately address those areas of the mouth, circumventing additional damage. This is nothing more than a race about who gets there first, the plaque or the dental team. When the patient shows up in a timely fashion for quarterly visits, it ensures that the patient, and the dental team, win the race. This ensuresno further bone loss, and that’s incentive.

I have often referred in my speaking to the reduction our profession has seen through the years in restorative needs (crowns, bridges, restorations). This is not only a real phenomenon but something we have inadvertently been responsible for. All actions have reactions, and many actions lead to unintended consequences.

In 1971, the number of decayed, missing, or filled permanent teeth per child between the ages of five and seventeen was 7.1. By 2004, thirty-three years later, that number had dropped almost seventy percent, to 2.1. In 2004 those kids are now thirty-eight to fifty years old. Guess what they don’t need: Restorative treatment.

Dentistry is the only profession that does everything it can on a daily basis to deplete its own resources. Providing fluoride, sealants, and education to the population on a daily basis has severely reduced the need or demand for restorative dentistry. Before you overreact, I am not implying that these things are wrong. The use of fluoride, sealants, and education are precisely the correct way to care for our patients.

But there are industry consequences, and one most obvious is the reduced need for restorative dental services. My point here is, what better to do to compensate for those lost services than to begin treating a disease that is not only the number one cause of tooth loss but also has been linked to many other systemic disorders?

I’m asking you to continue your preventive efforts in restorative dentistry, but also to mine the true gold in your practice, which is periodontal therapy. There is enoughgold in your practice’s hygiene department to literally change your life or lifestyle overnight. If you simply exist off all other practice incomes, as you are doing now, and invest every dollar generated from periodontal therapy, I dar