I have been a clinical hygienist since 1979. When I earned my degree in Dental Hygiene, I was very happy, idealistic and excited about caring for patients. I felt I was on a mission to improve people’s lives through better oral health. Being young and starry-eyed , I was not prepared for the reality of working in a dental practice. I found, to my great surprise, that most of my patients were not interested in the education about their oral health that I had been trained to provide. They just...
Read More
oral systemic connection
Life & Death and a Saliva Test
Sometimes I get so frustrated with the profession of dentistry. Here is my case in point: Five oral originating pathogens have been identified as causative in the development of atherosclerosis by the BaleDoneen™ peer reviewed study published in the British Medical Journal. Wait a minute, so they concluded that these oral bacteria are causative of atherosclerosis? Seriously? Yes!! And in the last one hundred years, atherosclerosis has killed more Americans than any other disease. Atheroscler...
Read More
Patient with Dental Pain, Periodontal Disease & High Blood Pressure
Challenge: To address the dental concerns to resolve patient’s dental pain. To educate the patient on the connection between dental health and overall health.
Background: The patient is a 37-year-old male who presented with a dental pain emergency. The home care is poor and patient has history of only seeking dental care for emergencies. Medically, the patient has hypothyroidism, hypertension, high cholesterol and significant difficulty breathing while asleep. The blood pressure reading o...
Read More
Interview with Dr. Lisa Marie Samaha
Dr. McGlennen: Tell me how you use OralDNA® salivary diagnostics.
Dr. Samaha: OralDNA® testing has been a standard and integral part of our intake of all patients with periodontal disease since early 2007. Our practice is well known for our protocol of diagnosing and treating periodontal disease and increasing total health profiles. Although I am a general dentist, over 95% of our new patients have some form of periodontal disease, from gingivitis to advanced, aggressive levels and we do ...
Read More
An Uncontrolled Diabetic Patient – Referred by Physician
Background: The patient is a 41-year-old female who has not been seen by a dental professional since 2008 (10 years). The patient stated her chief concern as “My doctor said my uncontrolled diabetes could be caused by my mouth.” Other medical concerns are high blood pressure and acid reflux. The home care routine consisted of manual tooth brushing only. Following the periodontal assessment, the patient was diagnosed with active, localized, chronic periodontitis due to the present sub-gingiva...
Read More
Simple Strategies to Enhance Oral & Overall Health
As dental professionals, we all take the responsibility to present treatment cases to patients. Most often, the dental hygienist presents periodontal treatment plans to patients, but in reality, any team member could present this type of case. For example, if a new patient is seen on the doctor’s schedule and periodontal disease is the diagnosis, the dental assistant could have the opportunity to present the case. It is important that with any case presentation, the team is on the same page....
Read More
Everyone Has A Story
Every patient that sits in your dental chair has a story. All stories have a beginning, middle, and end, as does life. We have the wonderful opportunity to help our patients be able to live a long and productive one. Jumping to the middle of my story, my mom died at the age of 58 and my dad at age 60, both from end stage vascular diseases. They didn’t get a chance to enjoy their children into their adult years, get time with their grandchildren, or even meet their great grandchildren. I, li...
Read More
Establishing New Treatment Objectives for Periodontal Disease
The principles of leadership that drive achievement have the practitioner state the objectives prior to initiating an action plan. Success is more certain and predictable, while any short falls become measurable and remedies are tied to the metrics of the initial objectives.
The traditional treatment objectives for periodontal therapy have revolved around certain soft and hard tissue architectural end points and bleeding on probing. These standards have been in place for about 100 years a...
Read More
Interview with Dawnie Kildoo, DDS, MAGD
Dr. McGlennen: Tell me how do you use OralDNA® salivary diagnostics.
Dr. Kildoo: We perform a MyPerioPath® on every patient with signs of periodontal disease. It gives us a more accurate diagnosis and helps us understand possible risk factors for other systemic diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes and strokes. Recently, we have been sending the results to the patient’s physician to help them understand the oral-systemic connection, too.
Dr. McGlennen: What has been the physician’s ...
Read More
An Interview with Kristen King
Dr. McGlennen: Tell me how you use OralDNA® salivary diagnostics.
Kristen RDH: We recommend OralDNA® saliva testing on all patients that have bleeding/inflammation regardless of probe depths. We utilize MyPerioPath® for these patients to customize treatment plans and target the cause of the inflammation. We utilize a post MyPerioPath®, called MyPerioProgress®, to measure the effectiveness of the therapy we provided. It is awesome to use an approach where we can have objective measurements t...
Read More