Many dentists believe they have a vibrant periodontal program in their practice. To properly determine whether this is true, a simple analysis can be used as a barometer to determine just how much periodontal therapy is occurring in a given dental practice. Simply print two separate monthly reports: for simplicity’s sake, I’ll call these Report A and Report B. • Report A includes all the following codes: 4341, 4342, 4910, and 1110. • Report B includes codes 4341, 4342, and …

Fear of rejection is the big private-practice clinician killer. Dentists come by this very honestly. Too many dentists are concerned with being their patient’s best friend, not wanting to ruffle anyone’s feathers. This is where speaking taught me the importance of ruffling feathers, because ruffling feathers is how we gain case treatment acceptance. Telling the truth = ruffling feathers. You can’t succeed by telling people what they want to hear, but only by telling them the truth. If that makes …

Dr. Tripke gives us some basic guidelines to initially get your periodontal program set on a successful course. Implementing just these basic ideas to your hygiene visit will have you well on your way to your patient’s acceptance of periodontal therapy.

Everyone wants to work in an environment where the morale is high, not only within the office itself, but with the patients as well. When a structured periodontal program is put into place, the patients will become educated and they will begin to visibly see results. Team members become happier for many reasons, more time to treat patients, less down time in the schedule, and a more productive schedule, which ultimately will lead to an increase in paychecks.

Due to the research and link between gum disease and many systemic disorders, we can no longer just treat the oral cavity during our hygiene visits. We have to start looking at this as treating the patient as a whole because this disease affects the entire body.

The education process of periodontal therapy between you and your patient will never end. It will be ongoing communication for each visit, as things are always changing and this disease is never “cured”. You may have them in maintenance, but the communication and education on their oral health is always ongoing.

Periodontal disease is a highly invasive disease of the oral cavity. It consists of aggressive, destructive, invasive organisms that inundate the tissue. In this vlog Dr. Tripke explains how the destruction from periodontal disease simulates that of a pyramid.

Breaking News! Dental Hygiene Departments are either scaling and root planing for free OR Not providing those services at all In this vlog Dr. Tripke shows you what is missing in your hygiene department.

When asked about their periodontal program most offices say one of two things: “We don’t have one” Or “We are thinking about it” In this vlog Dr. Tripke shares a formula that you can use to evaluate the status of your periodontal program.

Most dental offices don’t probe. And if they do, it’s typically “spot” probing. The Peridontal Screening/Recording (PSR) helps tether the patient to the practice. It links their existing systemic health to PSR findings. It is not for the purpose of diagnosis and treatment planning of periodontal disease. In this vlog, Dr. Tripke shares how the PSR leads to further periodontal and restorative treatment.