 Hello everybody, Andrea Majeski here with dental well tutoring in today's video I want to talk to you guys about how how I exactly How I talk to patients about either genivitis or perio. So I use this exact chart So hopefully you guys have something like this in the dental office if you don't I'm sure you can easily order it online It's by oral B, but this just helps to explain things easier Because you will have those patients where you might say to them that it's their time For a perio probe and they might go with the heck is that even if they've always had one if they've been coming to the dental office For 20 years, they might go. Okay. What's a probe or this one time? You know, they might have heard heard the numbers all of this time Which is never felt comfortable to ask questions if they didn't have a hygienist who wasn't able to explain things to them Or maybe they just simply ran out of time and didn't take the time to explain the perio condition to the patient Or and I'm guilty of this too I may assume that the patient knows because they've been coming for 20 years every three months They should know their perio status at that point, but just maybe they don't maybe they forgot It's always good to get a good review, you know We all know we should be eating more fruits and vegetables But if we don't think about it if we don't talk about it if we don't keep seeing these ads on social media People you know eating healthier losing weight, then we might just kind of forget about it So it's the same type of thing So what I do is first I show them a healthy tooth. So it doesn't matter. Sorry I'm just trying to get the light kind of out of the chart here, but so you might see that sorry Let's see. There we go. So this is what I show them So it doesn't matter if they have a healthy mouth if they have gingivitis early perio moderate or advanced I will always show them healthy first So I will say to them. This is what your tooth is, you know, your tooth is like inside a turtleneck So you want the gums to be nice and tight up against the the tooth So your head is your tooth, you know for lack of a better word Your your neck here is the root of the tooth. So I say it's like a turtleneck You want the gums to be nice and tight against the tooth So that when I'm putting my instrument in that little space there It shouldn't go down too far if it does things aren't healthy But healthy is up to three millimeters. So when I call out the numbers ones twos and threes That's healthy. We like those so the lower the number the better and if you would like to take it a step further Say up to that first black line. That's about three millimeters But once it's just past that black line that is four millimeters So if you're able to get that in there if the black line is all the way down here That's not a good thing, right? So then I'll take it a step further. So depending on what they have. So let's say Um, let's say they have um gingivitis. So we're not even in perio yet So I will show them see see how the gum is more red here, you know That's because and this is what's what's happening inside your mouth. There's more bleeding There's more inflammation if we had a cut on our hand And it started oozing blood we would be concerned, right? So it's the same thing inside the mouth. We don't like seeing any bleeding if we're Using the instruments if we're polishing none of that. We don't want to see any bleeding That's not a good sign. So if that's what's happening to them Then I will show them and then I will also remind them this side Sorry, this side is the healthy side. See how the gums are pink tight up against the tooth no issues But over on this side the gums are now getting red. So they have gingivitis, so we're not talking perio yet But then let's say all they have is gingivitis. So that's all, you know It's still serious, but that's all um, I'll say if you let this go then it could become perio So then I will show them this chart. So even if they still have gingivitis, I will show them this This is what happens if you let things go, okay? So if you're not brushing twice today if you're not using the floss every day if you're not coming in to see us for a cleaning This probing measurement will get deeper and once it gets past the black line That is a four or more and notice the plaque the tartar here That's when things start to get bad So if the plaque and tartar stays underneath the gums for too long even over the gums Things get bad things get inflamed. You don't want that. You want the healthy side right here So that's early perio. So early perio. Everybody is four millimeter pocketing So even if they have one four They have localized early perio. You might not be concerned. Honestly, I'm not concerned when I see one four I'm not but I talk to the patient as if I am because you don't want to make it as it's no big deal Because then they might not pay more attention to that area and then the next time you see them They have more force and that is a big deal. So you need to nip that in the bud as soon as possible So when they notice or hear a four they go, oh, okay, so I really have to step it up because if I don't This can happen. Okay. So this is moderate perio. So moderate perio Are those numbers five to six millimeters? Okay, so notice how the probe is getting deeper I will constantly show them the healthy side and say this is what we want It can get back to healthy but you have to brush you have to floss You need to see us more often with moderate perio. They should be coming in every three months Even with early perio, it can't hurt to come in every three months But the textbooks say four months is a better option because they don't have to do that every three months When I see a patient I say every three months because I don't want that for Millimeter pocket to get worse, but I'll show them like up here too because depending on Who your patient is they might look at this and go, okay, that doesn't look so healthy But for some reason they might look at this one and then go. Oh, wow, look at that too there That looks awful. So that's what it looks like inside my mouth. So depending on your patient and their learning style they might This picture might look more serious to them or it could be the top one. So show them both but keep showing them Look, sorry. Keep showing them the healthy side. So this is moderate perio. Notice how the gums are more red There's more plaque. There's more tartar and the probe is going in deeper So keep telling them if it doesn't get better Then we're up to the next step. Okay, so look look at how deep the pocket is Show them look at the gums and look at the tube way up here the gums way down there inside the mouth It looks like this You don't want that and and even at the previous stage of perio the moderate perio They can start to lose the bone support around the tooth and that makes their teeth look long So that's what I say to patients because if I say Not for everybody, but if I say they're starting to lose the bone support around the teeth They might go like, okay. So what's the big deal? But if I say to them, have you seen those people where their teeth look longer? You see brown stains black stains. It just doesn't really look nice That's moderate perio That's also severe perio if it's left to get worse You don't want your teeth to look like that because once you get to this stage It's very hard to go back to healthy You can but once you get to the bone level being lost your teeth will look long They can be healthier meaning Um, there's less plaque there. There's less inflammation. There's less tartars So you might not see as much stain, but the tooth will still look long once you get to this point So you don't want that so I try to use a mix of professional lingo Like gingivitis perio and then I go down to their terms, you know, your gums will be red Your tooth will look long your gums will bleed you will have gum disease Not good. So use a mix Um, so that's advanced perio So that's what I show them and then I will take it back again to the healthy picture And say, okay, so we want you to look like oh, sorry, that's not healthy. That's gingivitis We want you back To this but if you go to this stage, sorry guys, and then I show them again If you let it go to this stage, we can't get back to super healthy So we don't want that. So I tend to use this when I'm Trying to convince patients to come in more more often if they've never heard the words perio before Um, gingivitis if they're just not sure or if they're overly concerned Or if they're not concerned, you know, like all have patients where I'll tell them they have perio In that they need to come in every three months and then they'll go, okay, you know But I can tell that they don't understand the Seriousness of the situation. Yes, it's nice to come in every three months. It's nice that they're agreeing But they need to understand their mouth situation because there's nothing worse than a patient coming back two years later saying I wish somebody had just sat down to explain to me what was happening I've been coming in every three months not really knowing why but I wish Somebody had explained it to me, you know, somebody did explain it to me But I didn't understand so I just kind of smiled and nodded and that was it, right? So don't hesitate to explain things to the patient So I hope this helped you guys with um gingivitis perio the whole works Um, because it's so important to be able to talk to your patients So thank you guys for watching and I'll see you guys in the next one