Absolute Dental Centre

This is the second in a series of mini blogs from the International Symposium on Dental Hygiene. In my previous blog we were looking at some of the evidence that links periodontal disease to other systemic diseases including diabetes. Moving on from this we have realised that there may be a great deal we can do to not only help the oral hygiene of our patients but to identify other conditions affecting the mouth. The great challenges that we face are not only a question of which toothbrush to use but about how to change the behaviour of our patients to help them take greater responsibility for their oral care. Some of the ways we can help improve are care at the chairside are:Biofeedback - this means measuring plaque on the tooth surfaces, bleeding on probing or use of disclosing solutions.Near patient testing at point of care- this can mean recording the levels of cotinine in saliva of patients who smoke. This could be done in house so that results can be instant. Other new forms of biofeedback include a system called Previser which we can use as a risk assessor for periodontal disease. It is a computer based system which allows us to record details of patients general health, including smoking, levels of bone loss, recession and periodontal pocket depths. This is then e-mailed to a computer system which gives a prediction of risk of further disease. Oralinsights is also a very new concept for toothbrushing. It is also computer generated and the patient uses a toothbrush which has a sensor in the head. This produces a computer generated picture of the areas of the teeth which are being brushed well and the deepest darkest corners where we have missed! Its great to see how far technology is reaching into dentistry! In my next mini blog I will take us through some of the other hot topics at the conference of enamel therapy, sensitivity and allergies. In the meantime, I want to share with you a conversation I had recently with a patient which made me think how important it is when we are advising patients on their oral hygiene methods.I saw this particular patient last week and we had been discussing how he had improved his oral care since his last appointment and he said that he had been thinking about the toothpaste he uses as I wanted to know. On closer inspection of his toothpaste tube he said that it had two arrows pointing to the cap of the toothpaste and instructions to squeeze from the bottom on the tube. He was very amused as he looked everywhere on the tube but couldn't find anything to say you had to take the cap off to get the toothpaste out!!!!!! Happy brushing! http://www.absolute-dental.co.uk/treatments/preventive.html