{"id":6749,"date":"2020-10-16T12:00:17","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T17:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oraldna.com\/trends-in-salivary-testing\/?p=6749"},"modified":"2021-05-20T16:11:44","modified_gmt":"2021-05-20T21:11:44","slug":"things-i-wish-were-different-about-dentistry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oraldna.com\/trends-in-salivary-testing\/index.php\/2020\/10\/16\/things-i-wish-were-different-about-dentistry\/","title":{"rendered":"Things I Wish Were Different About Dentistry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It is time to change. \u00a0It is time to leave behind the limited image of the dentist as the senior member of the oral hygiene police with the dental hygienist as the loyal foot soldier in the war against plaque. \u00a0It is time to stop admonishing patients that if they do not floss their teeth will fall out. \u00a0It is time to get more serious about dentistry.<\/p>\n

Helping people keep their teeth was a justifiable goal for dentistry 50 years ago.\u00a0 Even a conservative interpretation of the available evidence that has emerged since the tooth-saving days of dentistry suggests that this myopic goal must change. \u00a0I wish dentistry would come to terms with the fact that it is no longer solely about saving teeth, it is about reducing inflammation. \u00a0I wish the overall focus of dentistry would change.<\/p>\n

Medicine has long been focused on controlling inflammation to reduce the development and progression of many of the quality-of-life robbing chronic diseases of aging. \u00a0There is now undeniable evidence that the local inflammatory response to initiating periodontal biofilm spills into the circulatory system, contributing to the level of systemic inflammation.\u00a0 Medicine is embracing the potential for periodontal therapy to result in therapeutically meaningful reductions in markers of systemic inflammation.\u00a0 While there is no proof of a causative<\/em> link between all oral and systemic diseases, there clearly is sufficient evidence to suggest that oral inflammation contributes<\/em> to the systemic diseases that are driven by inflammation. \u00a0That is something we should be shouting to every patient that walks by our office, let alone to our existing patients.<\/p>\n

When the host response is inadequate and\/or dysregulated, which can be significantly influenced by genetic, acquired, or environmental factors as well as microbiological and other local factors, periodontitis onset and progression may occur. \u00a0In other words, the onset and progression of periodontal disease are patient-specific. \u00a0Not all patients respond to biofilm in the same way. \u00a0Rather than treating every patient in cookie-cutter fashion with a prophy, bitewings, and fluoride treatment, it seems prudent to diagnose and treat some patients more aggressively, simply to help those patients keep their teeth. \u00a0Diagnosing and treating patients aggressively can also have a positive impact on patients\u2019 overall health due to the fact many of the risk factors for chronic inflammatory periodontal disease (CIPD) are also risk factors for systemic chronic diseases.<\/p>\n

Patients that are tobacco users, over the ideal weight, have diabetes, post-menopausal women, patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and patients with respiratory diseases are among the patients in whom inflammation reduction is critical.\u00a0 In these \u201cpriority\u201d patients, using salivary diagnostics can better help the management of oral and systemic diseases. \u00a0Helping these patients achieve and maintain a preferred level of oral health can pay dividends to their oral and overall wellness.<\/p>\n

That brings me to the second thing I wish would change in dentistry. \u00a0For too long we have sold patients on the need for a procedure. \u00a0\u201cYou probably would benefit from deep cleaning,\u201d has rolled off many a dental professional\u2019s tongues. \u00a0It is no surprise that patients resist ongoing periodontal therapy.\u00a0 Many of us dental professionals have also heard the common refrain from patients, \u201cHow can I have problems, I had a deep cleaning already.\u201d \u00a0The recommended procedure is not the endpoint, but rather, it is a step along the pathway to achieving the endpoint<\/p>\n

CIPD is a chronic disease. \u00a0Successful management requires life-long attention, especially in \u201cpriority\u201d patients. \u00a0I wish dentistry would focus more on selling patients on the need to achieve and maintain a preferred level of oral health rather than the procedure.\u00a0 My patients realize that they are coming to see me so that I can determine if they have any oral inflammation, so I can develop and institute a plan which is intended to maximize the chance any current inflammation is resolved and then kept at bay.\u00a0 My patients realize that doing so is an important part of their journey towards overall wellness. \u00a0They also realize that ongoing management at our office is critical. \u00a0We use the most definitive diagnostics available to help our patients better manage their health.\u00a0 We owe them nothing less.<\/p>\n

From this point forward, I am going to make sure that my hygienists no longer tell patients that they are in the tooth cleaning business.\u00a0 I am even going to stop telling patients that I am in the tooth-saving business. \u00a0I am telling our patients that we can help them achieve wellness by managing the risk factors common to oral and systemic disease and by ensuring that we achieve the desired outcome for our patients in terms of biofilm management and inflammation reduction. \u00a0In our office, we are in the inflammation-reduction business. For additional insight, visit beyondthemouth.com.<\/a><\/p>\n

For more information on how to become an OralDNA Provider \u2013 scan HERE:\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In these \u201cpriority\u201d patients, using salivary diagnostics can better help the management of oral and systemic diseases. Helping these patients achieve and maintain a preferred level of oral health can pay dividends to their oral and overall wellness. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":6772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,108,110],"tags":[9,17,112],"class_list":["post-6749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oral-systemic","category-patient-education","category-salivary-diagnostics","tag-bacterial-testing","tag-oral-systemic-connection","tag-patient-education"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.oraldna.com\/trends-in-salivary-testing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Dr-Donley-Bowling-Green-KY-New-Large.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7W16z-1KR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oraldna.com\/trends-in-salivary-testing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6749"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oraldna.com\/trends-in-salivary-testing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oraldna.com\/trends-in-salivary-testing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oraldna.com\/trends-in-salivary-testing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oraldna.com\/trends-in-salivary-testing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6749"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.oraldna.com\/trends-in-salivary-testing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7773,"href":"https:\/\/www.oraldna.com\/trends-in-salivary-testing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6749\/revisions\/7773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oraldna.com\/trends-in-salivary-testing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oraldna.com\/trends-in-salivary-testing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oraldna.com\/trends-in-salivary-testing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oraldna.com\/trends-in-salivary-testing\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}