The main objective of this course is to give you a new way of looking at dentistry. We become so caught in the everyday routine of dental treatment, we seem to overlook areas we should be questioning.
In my experience there are basically two types of patients, those with decay and those with periodontal disease, very seldom are the two together. Depending on the location of your practice, most of your recall patients will have a periodontal disease (4mm plus pockets) with little or no decay. These are patients who brush regularly, floss and come in for a cleaning every 3 to 6 months. They do no not show any visible calculus or plaques, yet they have periodontal pockets.
These same patients will have wide periodontal ligaments, and/or vertical alveolar bone loss and admit to clenching their teeth.
Two questions come to mind:
1. Is clenching a contributing factor to periodontal disease?
2. If periodontal pockets have acid producing gram negative anaerobic bacteria, the roots of the involved teeth should be full of decay. Why isn’t....