Periodontal Program

It is very important to have healthy gums.

Importance of a Healthy Smile

Hygiene Centre | Gum Health | Fresh Breath | Your Hygiene Visit | Dental Plan

Suppose your initial assessment and examination showed that you had any level of gum disease that included a form of periodontitis. In that case, you may be placed on a Periodontal Program that would be able to address this condition. In some cases, a Periodontist may need to devise your treatment plan.

A periodontal program is a Treatment Plan of action that involves having a baseline record of your condition, and then any treatment done is measured against this record.

In this way, we can see improvements using these records as evidence visually. A Hygiene Therapist can conduct this Treatment Plan.

The purpose of the proposed therapy is to:

Stop the disease process and prevent it from progressing any further.
Keep the treatment simple and painless.
Educate the patients so that correct home care is maintained

Bleeding gums, plaque and tartar are common. If gum disease is allowed to continue, then the bone loss can occur, eventually leading to loosening of the teeth.

Appointment 1 – Baseline Cleaning Visit

On this visit, the Hygiene Therapist will conduct the following:

A “tour” of your mouth to assess the condition of your mouth.
Review of any computerised baseline assessment records.
Oral hygiene instructions will be given. For example, brushing techniques specific to your mouth, floss, and other interdental cleaning aids will be explained. The use of a tongue cleaner for fresh breath will be advised too.
Advice on therapeutic agents, such as the new generation of oral rinse and toothpaste, will be given.
A Nutritional Analysis sheet will be provided, and advice given on its completion.
If fluoride desensitising is required, this will also be conducted on this visit.

The hygienist will then scale your teeth to remove any heavy deposits of tartar (calculus) around the mouth with ultrasonic and special hand instruments. Your teeth will have all stains removed and polished.

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Appointment 2 – Reassessment and Re-measurement Visit

After one month, the hygienist will review your home-care cleaning procedures and complete the following examination:

Periodontal status: assessing the colour, contour and consistency of the gums.
Plaque score: you aim to reach 10% or less.
Bleeding score: if you have maintained good oral hygiene during your home care, there should be a reduction in the inflammation of the gums.
Pocket depth: there should be a reduction in the depth.
Do a Nutritional Analysis if you were advised of this on your last visit.
You will also be given any necessary dietary and decay prevention advice.

The hygienist will then scale your teeth to remove any subsequent deposits of tartar (calculus) all around the mouth with ultrasonic and special hand instruments. She may need to irrigate the gum crevices with antibacterial agents.

Also, she will remove any stain and plaque with polishing agents. In some instances, the Hygiene Therapist may start work on the residual deeper pockets during this appointment.

Appointment 3 – New Treatment Plan & Deep Cleaning Visit

One month after Appointment 2, the hygienist will make another assessment of the:

a) Periodontal status – generally how your gums are, and a diagnosis will be made.
b) Plaque score- this should now be significantly less.
c) Bleeding score – this should also be significantly less.
d) Pocket depth – there should only be very deep pockets remaining.

Based on these measurements and Gum Analysis, the Hygiene Therapist will create another Treatment Plan which will address the “pockets” of detached gum 4mm and above.

Generally, you should have seen an improvement by this stage on much of the inflammation around the mouth. However, there may be some residual, very resistant or deeply infected areas that will not respond.

For these areas, deeper cleaning will be required. Hence, the therapist will create a new protocol to address this.

The number of subsequent appointments will be based on how much Chronic Periodontitis is present.

Typically, there will be four appointments – each constituting deep cleaning of each quadrant of the mouth.

Sometimes, if there are fewer pockets, the hygiene therapist can do this work in two visits, working on each side of the mouth each time.

Your Subsequent Treatment Appointments

These visits will entail deeper cleaning of the pockets that are more than 4-5mm.

Since this may be uncomfortable for you, the particular areas of your mouth with the deeper pockets will require a local anaesthetic to be administered.

Once your gums are numb from the anaesthetic, the hygiene therapist will use fine-tipped hand instruments to clean inside the pocket areas.

They may also use ultrafine ultrasonic instruments to flush out and oxygenate the pockets, creating an environment where optimal healing can occur.

They will be scaling away all the tarter and infection build-up deep in the gum pocket that has been inaccessible to you.

Sometimes irrigation of gum crevice with antibacterial agents is also needed.

Review Appointment

A review visit will be made depending on how long the hygienist feels you will require for everything to heal. In most instances, this is one month.

On this visit, the hygienist will review your home cleaning procedures; pocketing, plaque and bleeding scores are also carried out. Here you should see some significant improvements.

If there is a resistant infection, the hygienist may consider either a referral to our Specialist Periodontologist or a repeat process of the above appointments to give the resistant areas an additional deep cleaning.

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Free Consulations

Our free no obligation Initial Consultation will be with our dentist and/or our Treatment Coordinators. The suitability of options discussed will ultimately be dependent upon your clinical assessment with a dentist at the practice.

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Periodontal Program