4. Members Of The Dental Team Treating Periodontal Disease

In topic #3, the most impor­tant team mem­ber in the treat­ment of peri­odon­tal dis­ease and gin­givi­tis, the patient, was dis­cussed. Now the other team mem­bers will be discussed.

The hygien­ist is a very impor­tant mem­ber of the team that is often under­es­ti­mated by the patient. The hygien­ist is much more than a clean­ing lady as viewed by many patients. It is the hygien­ist that often records the extent of dis­ease present, edu­cates the patient about oral hygiene, rec­om­mends when the patient should return to the office, per­forms some of the most dif­fi­cult pro­ce­dures for the patient and gives feed­back to the den­tist and patient on the level of peri­odon­tal health and how its treat­ment is pro­gress­ing. In other words, the hygien­ist is an indis­pens­able team member.

It is the den­tist, whether gen­eral or spe­cial­ist, that makes the diag­no­sis of peri­odon­tal dis­ease or gin­givi­tis and inter­prets any X rays taken to aid in the diag­no­sis of these con­di­tions. It is the gen­eral den­tist who often first sees the patient with either one of these con­di­tions and then decides whether to pro­vide some, all or no treat­ment for the patient with peri­odon­tal dis­ease in his or her office.

The desire of the gen­eral den­tist to treat peri­odon­tal dis­ease varies widely based on the skills and pref­er­ences of the gen­eral den­tist. Some gen­eral den­tists per­form some treat­ments of peri­odon­tal dis­ease and restrict their treat­ment to mild cases of peri­odon­tal dis­ease. Some gen­eral den­tists pre­fer to refer most of these cases to the spe­cial­ist or periodontist.

Many gen­eral den­tal offices are involved in the main­te­nance part of the treat­ment of peri­odon­tal disease.

The spe­cial­ist or peri­odon­tist is a den­tist with addi­tional train­ing and expe­ri­ence in the field of peri­odon­tics, which involves the recog­ni­tion, diag­no­sis and treat­ment of peri­odon­tal dis­ease and gin­givi­tis. This field also involves the replace­ment of lost teeth as a result of peri­odon­tal dis­ease or other rea­sons by implants. It is the peri­odon­tist who often gets refer­rals from the gen­eral den­tist to treat peri­odon­tal dis­ease in its mild, mod­er­ate or advanced stages depend­ing on the refer­ral pat­terns of the gen­eral dentist.

The peri­odon­tist in many cases is involved in the main­te­nance part of the treat­ment. And of course, many peri­odon­tal offices have hygien­ists as part of their team to treat peri­odon­tal dis­ease. A peri­odon­tist pro­vides a range of treat­ments for peri­odon­tal dis­ease that a gen­eral den­tist may not provide.

Now that you have some infor­ma­tion about the team mem­bers involved in the treat­ment of peri­odon­tal dis­ease, we will dis­cuss in topic # 5 and #6, the goals of peri­odon­tal treat­ment in more detail and relate those goals to the team member’s roles in achiev­ing those goals.