In topic #2, what it means to treat periodontal disease and gingivitis in terms of achieving goals was discussed. Now we will begin to discuss how the goals of periodontal treatment are achieved. Can the dental office alone successfully treat periodontal disease for the long term?
In dentistry as an example, a dentist can not undo what a patient will not do for themselves. What this statement mean is that a dentist can not undo the undesirable effects of disease in the long term without the patient doing their part to look after themselves. Therefore one of the most important concepts for anyone who has periodontal disease or gingivitis and wants to have these conditions successfully treated for the long term to understand is the “Team Concept”. Treating periodontal disease or gingivitis is truly about teamwork.
Before goals of treatment can be discussed, a look at the members of the team and their roles in achieving these goals is needed. The team members are the patient, hygienist, general dentist and specialist or periodontist, as needed. Without all the team members doing their part, no long term goals can be achieved.
All members of the team are important, but none more so than the patient. Often in the long term, it is what the patient does or does not do that determines the success or failure of periodontal treatment performed by the other members of the team. It is very important that from the beginning, the patient understands this fact.
It is the patient that has the most difficult tasks to perform because it is the patient that has to develop new habits or in other words, make permanent new lifestyle changes. Making long term lifestyle changes is not easy to do as it tests that person’s commitment to those changes every day. Sometimes only small changes are needed. Those habits or permanent lifestyle changes will be discussed in a later article.
Consider the person who wants to lose weight. Regardless of the method to initially lose the weight, it is keeping the weight off for the rest of a person’s lifetime that is the difficult part and the challenge because of the permanent lifestyle changes needed. Many people make the needed changes, then after a number of years slip back for various reasons to their old lifestyle habits that contributed to their weight problem in the first place.
In topic # 4, we will discuss the other important members of the team needed to treat periodontal disease and gingivitis.
