In This Issue by Trisha O’Hehir, RDH, MS Editorial Director, Hygienetown


New Probing Approach

by Trisha O’Hehir, RDH, MS
Editorial Director, Hygienetown


Telling patients they have periodontal disease when they are expecting a routine prophylaxis can be a challenge, especially if they have been patients of record for many years. The reasons for finding yourself in this situation and a plan of action to follow when this happens are covered in this month’s CE course, “No Longer Just a Prophy.”

Dr. Howard Farran came up with an idea years ago that makes this transition fun and easy for the clinician and more importantly, directly involves the patient. It’s called Probing According to Dr. Howard Farran and changes the pattern of probing to educate the patient. Instead of probing around the teeth as we traditionally do, probing is done in two passes around the mouth, separating facial and lingual surfaces from interproximal. Howard’s goal for the patient is to separate brushing surfaces from flossing surfaces.

At the start, tell patients you are doing a new test for gum disease and you will call the measurements out loud so they can hear them. The numbers should be 1 to 3, anything 4 or higher is disease and any bleeding points are a sign of infection.

Start by probing all the brushing surfaces, facials and linguals. When that’s complete, tell patients you are going to check for infection on their flossing surfaces. Hearing the probing scores separated between brushing and flossing surfaces immediately draws patients into the diagnosis. After you finish this process, patients will know their periodontal status and where they need to focus their attention before you say another word. The stage is set to inform them of their periodontal status.

With this new probing approach, you’ll be doing more non-surgical periodontal therapy (SRP) followed up with periodontal maintenance. This month’s Perio Reports covers new approaches to periodontal maintenance, the quality of life after SRP and new products to improve oral health.

Inside This Section
132      Perio Reports
136      Continuing Education: No Longer Just a Prophy
142      Message Board: Patient Refuses Periodontal Probing

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