5. The Goals Of Periodontal Treatment In More Detail — Part 1

In top­ics #3 and #4, the Team Con­cept and the team mem­bers needed to detect and treat peri­odon­tal dis­ease and gin­givi­tis was dis­cussed. In this topic, we will dis­cuss the goals of peri­odon­tal treat­ment in more detail and relate those goals to the team member’s roles in achiev­ing those goals.

The first goal of peri­odon­tal treat­ment is to pre­vent peri­odon­tal dis­ease or catch it in its ear­li­est stages by increas­ing a person’s aware­ness of the dis­ease itself and its warn­ing signs. The pur­pose of all these writ­ten arti­cles is to increase the aware­ness of peo­ple about peri­odon­tal dis­ease and gin­givi­tis. When peo­ple are more aware of the nature of these dis­eases to pre­vent, the more prob­a­ble a per­son will seek out early treat­ment of these dis­eases and fol­low up on the lifestyle changes needed to main­tain the treat­ment results.

One impor­tant part of pre­ven­tion of this dis­ease is to be aware of its warn­ing signs. Healthy gums are pink, do not bleed, are not painful and fit tightly around the teeth. Also there is no odor. Teeth are not loose. There­fore changes from health are warn­ing signs. Some of the more impor­tant warn­ing signs of gin­givi­tis or peri­odon­tal dis­ease are sore or painful gums, bleed­ing gums, red inflamed or swollen gums, odor, receed­ing gums and loose teeth. It is impor­tant to real­ize that this dis­ease process can be pain­less for many years, there­fore not hav­ing pain does not mean every­thing is fine with the gums and bone around the teeth.

For smok­ers, it is impor­tant to be aware that smok­ing reduces blood flow to the gums and reduces gum inflam­ma­tion. There­fore a smoker may have no warn­ing signs of sore and bleed­ing gums, yet have more bone loss under the gums com­pared to a non-smoker. A smoker’s gums may even appear healthy on the sur­face and mis­lead the smoker into believ­ing every­thing is fine with the bone sup­port under the gums.

The role of the den­tal team mem­bers is to edu­cate the patient about gin­givi­tis, peri­odon­tal dis­ease, its warn­ing signs and the need to come to the den­tal office on a reg­u­lar basis for its detec­tion, treat­ment and main­te­nance of treat­ment results. The role of the patient is to be aware of and look for the warn­ing signs and go to the den­tal office as needed to detect, treat and main­tain the treat­ment results of peri­odon­tal dis­ease or gin­givi­tis. The role of the patient is also to make the needed long term lifestyle changes or habits, such as brush­ing, floss­ing and reg­u­lar den­tal office vis­its to pre­vent or aid in the treat­ment of these diseases.

In topic #6 and #7, more of the goals of peri­odon­tal treat­ment and the team mem­bers’ roles in achiev­ing those goals will be discussed.