The Dental Office isn’t Burger King, you can’t always have it YOUR WAY!
How patients can manipulate dentist and dental hygienists to do what they want but may not be what they need.
With the perception of dentistry changing over the years and patients feeling like they can go in and dictate their care, I am here to tell you: The dental office is not
Burger King, and you can’t always have it your way. With the ever expansive, WORLD-WIDE WEB and the ability for patients to turn to google MD, your latest influencer, and a slew of other media EXPERTS you are bound to find someone to give you the narrative you want, for the ailment you have. Of course, you are always given options, different routes of treatment, and of course you always have the right of refusal, but so does the practice. I am a licensed practitioner of the state, which means I have guidelines of my own I must follow to maintain my license. By providing you with what you want and not what you NEED would be putting me in a position of supervised neglect. The state dental board knows that I have been educated in this field, unlike the average patient. Too often, dental hygienists are bullied by our patient into treatment that is unethical, and frankly a disservice to your overall health. Here are the different types of cleaning you may hear or have heard of at your appointment and what they mean:
Adult Prophy - This is your routine “normal” cleaning. This patient will have no bone loss, and no pocketing measurements over 4mm present. There is no tarter build up below the gums, the overall gum health is good with light pink tissue and minimal bleeding.
Gross Debridement or Gingivitis Deep Cleaning - This cleaning is for those patients who have moderate - heavy inflammation of the gums with no bone loss present. Moderate- heavy plaque present with moderate bleeding. A gingivitis cleaning will most likely be on a shortened recall to prevent bone loss from occurring in the future.
DSRP (Deep Scaling & Root Planning) - this type of cleaning can be localized to a few teeth or full quadrants of the mouth. The determining factor for this type of cleaning is active bone loss AKA periodontal disease. The purpose of this cleaning is to go below the gum tissue and clean to the depth of the pocket. Pending on the practice you will be asked to come back 6 weeks to 3 mths after the initial cleaning (periodontal maintenance cleaning) to re evaluate the pocket depths and to make sure progress is happening. From this point on you will always have periodontal maintenance cleaning, as cancer can go into remission you are now at a higher risk for bone loss coming back or getting worse. Bone does not grow back, your gum tissue becomes healthy be reducing down to the bone height.
If pocketing becomes too deep usually 7mm and above referring out to a periodontist is necessary as tooth loss becomes more imminent. Gum surgery or laser therapy is necessary at this point to save teeth and even then sometimes the pending on the area the damage may to be too far gone. The sooner you see a specialist the better.
