Seven Ways the New Comprehensive Periodontal Tool Can Help Your Dental Practice

Recently, the American Academy of Periodontology released a statement on Comprehensive Periodontal Therapy. This is a great tool for you to share with the dental hygienists in your office so they can easily and accurately educate your patients.

In an interview with hygienist Ilisa Wommack, she gives seven highlights of how this can benefit your practice. Based on these insights, this statement can help your hygienist:

Explain exactly why your patient needs periodontal therapy and where the patient stands.

  1. Keep on the same page as you when answering follow-up questions when you aren’t available to speak to your patient.
  2. Manage patient’s expectations and increase your patient’s willingness to accept and carry out your treatment plans for things such as gingivitis.
  3. Justify why additional treatments (to help prevent periodontal disease) are not covered by their insurance plan and why these treatments are critical to do
  4. Properly code for treatment.
  5. Quantify which cases should be referred to a specialist.
  6. Set goals for short and long-term treatment so you can reduce bleeding, reduce pocket depth, and stop inflammation along with preventing and reducing bone loss, ensuring tooth stability and reducing systemic risks.

Use the Comprehensive Periodontal Therapy Statement as a roadmap to help your new hygienists put their education into practice and as a way to revisit and reinforce these important guidelines for your veteran hygienists. When you do, you’ll find your hygienists more focused on evidence-based treatment and less prone to mis-interpretation.