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How to Take Perio More Seriously For Your Patients (and Your Practice)

9/8/2026 11:59:00 AM | Comments: 0 | Views: 28

Perio does not get the attention it deserves. Tiff and Kristy discuss why periodontal health is such an underutilized area in dental practices, and give specific tips to bridge the gap through diagnosis, case acceptance, and follow-up — for everyone from your hygienists all the way to the front office.

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Transcript:

Tiffanie (00:00)

Hello Dental A Team listeners. I am back with you today on the podcast hosting. This is Tiffanie and I'm just so excited to be here. I have one of my favorite podcasting guests with me today, one of our prized consultants. You guys know I bring the consultant team here to you, and I love them all dearly. and I have a few that just

Calm me. And Kristy, you're one of them. I know I say it all the time. And and the practices who are lucky enough to work with you know what I'm talking about when I say you calm. So thank you for being here. I value you and I appreciate you and I'm excited for this topic, first of all. But secondly, how are you doing? It's like peak monsoon season. It's you know in my books a month and a half late for a normal what Arizona should have monsoons, but we're finally getting rain, which is huge.

DAT- Kristy (00:52)

I know.

Tiffanie (00:53)

And that's

totally different. And when this drops, it'll be like a month from now. So they're gonna be like, What are you guys even talking about? But how is the end of your summer turning out? I'm pretty excited over here.

DAT- Kristy (01:04)

Yeah, it's been a good summer. the storms I had forgotten like intensity of it last night definitely had me up a few times and felt the house rumble, but thank goodness it's it's all good. It's all good. Just a fun light show. Yeah.

Tiffanie (01:19)

Yeah. It was crazy, right? I said it was like

a it was like being at a concert. Like the it just wouldn't stop. And it's funny you say that you forgot how intense they were because for the listeners here, Kristy lived here in her younger years, moved away for a while, and now she's back with us. But Kristy, that in between space, we haven't had storms like this in a really long time. So when it happened night before last in the backyard is like

crazy and it's coming in all wild and it's beautiful and I'm just like sitting there in awe like a child. Aaron, my fiance, is like, this is crazy. And I'm like, this is my childhood. This is what

DAT- Kristy (01:57)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (01:58)

the storms are supposed to be like. We just we haven't had them in I'm not even kidding, probably eight years. It's been

DAT- Kristy (02:06)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (02:06)

so long since we've had good storms.

DAT- Kristy (02:10)

That's crazy. Well, I'm glad they're happening now. Like you said, we do need the rain. It it got it got kind of intense, but hey, I'll take it over the tornadoes and the other stuff happening. So yeah. Yeah.

Tiffanie (02:20)

I know. I know. I agree. This is why I live in Arizona. For the beautiful

storms and the no like natural disasters. I'll take the heat. I love it.

DAT- Kristy (02:29)

Agree. Agree.

And if you haven't smelt the desert when it rains, like nothing like it, right?

Tiffanie (02:35)

It really is. It's incredible.

It's incredible. I love where we live. So we are blessed. I love Arizona and people think I'm crazy for that, but I really, really do. It's my happy place.

DAT- Kristy (02:45)

great.

Tiffanie (02:46)

Well, off topic of weather, which I could talk Arizona all day long. I wanted to dig into some systems with you today, Kristy. And we've done a podcast, we just recorded a podcast on finances. So if you haven't found that one, go find it.

But

this one I really wanted to dig into a couple of in office systems that I think are still being missed. There's still some gaps in a few places. And one of those places I think is perio. I think that it's still not getting the attention that it deserves. in in the office, chair side, and then when the patient leaves, like I just think it's still not a hot topic.

for practices. Kristy, am I off base or do you feel like do you feel the same or similar?

DAT- Kristy (03:36)

Yeah, no, I feel 100% the same, Tiff. And and though I didn't grow up being a hygienist, I definitely have a soft spot for them and a passion for oral wellness. So 1000% I agree with you. And it's one of those areas in the practice that I think there's a lot of low-hanging fruit and and opportunity. And to my hygiene friends, please hear me. Like I know you're treating the disease. We just

We just need to approach it a little bit differently so that you're doing well by the patient and the practice.

Tiffanie (04:12)

Yeah, I agree. And I think to that point, Kristy, I hear you. And I hear a lot of hygienists say, you know, well, I am I'm doing it, I'm just not coding it correctly. And my question is, and this is maybe a red button, I don't know, hot topic, I'm not a hygienist, right? So I will say that loud and clear, I'm not a hygienist, but based on my scheduling knowledge and the treatment planning that I've done.

I know that when you do diagnose it and code it correctly, you want extra time. But if we're not doing that and we're not getting the extra time, like how are we really eradicating it and helping the patient? And I think there's still this financial stigma tied to it. And I get it. I I understand that. It's not easy to it's not easy to tell somebody they need to pay you money.

Especially when you're the one doing the service. I get that. We sit in that situation sometimes and it's not easy. And I also know that I trust what I'm paying for when I'm paying what I should be, if that makes sense. Like if I'm if I'm told, you know, I'm I'm I look up and I find this doctor who's supposed to be great and yeah, they're they cost more than the doctor down the street.

Who's offering discounts or or what have you, but says he gives the same value and the same treatment, like how you value the treatment that you're giving is perceived by the other, the other side. So

DAT- Kristy (05:53)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (05:54)

a long-winded way of saying stop discounting yourself and your services, because it's not actually helping anything. it makes me sad. Like, gosh, I want patients to know.

That they're getting the treatment that they deserve. And imagine if they went for one second somewhere else in an emergency out of town and somebody said saw something and said something, and they're like, Wait, what? What do you mean there's something there? I just had XYZ. That would make me so much more sad as a practitioner than to have to tell someone, hey, there's more going on here. You're you're older.

I'm older, our bodies are changing, you know, our cells are regenerating, you're taking different medications, whatever it may be, things change every single day. And I'd rather have that conversation than the conversation of, yeah, but it's fine, I'm watching it. You know? Yeah.

DAT- Kristy (06:55)

yeah.

Yeah, what are you watching? It's kind of funny that you say that because Tiff, I was listening to a thing for Pearl AI, and I remember the gentleman talking about his wife had gone to have her yearly exam done and a doctor was like, Wait, you're too young for this, like breast cancer is not that early. We'll we'll just watch this. And it was like a ding ding ding to him, like, what do you

Watch what? We're not watching anything

when it comes to our health, right? So yeah, I I agree with you, Tiff. And I think it's kind of funny listening to you because I was literally just talking to a team about how we create a lot of our outcomes. And I think part of it is it's well, I know most of it starts with us and how we create the verbiage around it to create value for what we're doing. And hygiene's no different. You know, we get really upset because

They're the first ones that fall off the schedule, technically. I mean, I challenge anybody to go back and look at last month's cancellations, and majority of them are going to be hygiene patients. And so, with that being said, I do think we do ourselves a disservice by saying it's just your cleaning. You guys, none of our hygienists are maids. Like they're oral wellness people. And truly nowadays, I mean, back when we started, we didn't know all the all the connections, Tiff, but now.

When you guys can can put some of those eye-opening stats to Pereo Health, and we know that gum disease can be prevented or stopped from progressing. we have a due diligence to treat our patients different. So truly, number one, I challenge people to not call it a cleaning and start creating value for your hygienist. Like

They are oral therapists and a lot of disease starts in the mouth. Like I'm have a huge passion for it. A lot of disease starts in the mouth. And when we can make those connections and approach it differently, because we know all of our dental people are caring people. And when we approach it from that caring aspect, we're gonna get a different outcome when it comes to treating our patients and having them value those services.

Tiffanie (09:15)

Yeah, I think adding to that beautiful statement is you said when we care about them, right? So we're adding value, we're ca we actually care about the human. I think that flows into also making sure that we're doing the due diligence of following up when patients say no in the office. Cause I do think that space is still really disregarded in treatment care follow up. So when we're doing follow up calls.

I know the implants are important. I know the crowns are important. I know the doctor side treatment is important. But how often are we calling the patients who need the periodontal services? I know when I was in office, we we would be like, hygiene's got openings. Pull the periolist. Like, why weren't they already getting calls? Why weren't they just on our call list, but they weren't? Because it's not as important or air quotes around that, guys.

to us as the dental side, the doctor's treatment is. And I think that's still an underutilized area of the practice when it comes to periodontal health.

DAT- Kristy (10:23)

Yeah, I agree with you, Tiff. And sometimes, you know, well, our patients are no different than us as humans. And and sometimes we do question things, right? And if patients walk out the door and whatever excuse they give, because typically there's a few of them that we all heard, right? when we don't follow up, we're we're really sending a message that maybe it doesn't matter because well, was it true? Did I really need it? 'Cause

They didn't call me. They didn't care to follow up and say it was important, you know?

Tiffanie (10:58)

Yeah.

DAT- Kristy (10:59)

So even the lack of of doing nothing, or how many times have you heard a team member say, Well, call us when you're ready? You know, they're

Tiffanie (11:06)

Uh-huh.

DAT- Kristy (11:08)

never gonna be ready. Let we need to care enough to share and invest in their health and show them that it's worth caring about, right?

Tiffanie (11:18)

I agree. I agree. I remember and I and it still happens. I've been in offices consulting when I've seen this happen that patients will call back and they're like team members like, I can't believe this. They called back and they're like, Can I get my regular cleaning? You had SRP diagnosed. You can't have a regular cleaning. And it's like I remember having those conversations of like, Are you crazy? Right. But what did I do leading up to that to ensure the understanding that you actually really do need this type of a cleaning?

And we need to do our services correctly and get you scheduled for it because patients will be like, Well, it's been six months since I saw them, whether I had a cleaning or not. Time to get back in, get my exam, and then they'll they'll slide back in. And so many patients I think go under the radar and do get scheduled back in the recare. Right. And Kristy, I don't know if you've seen it or not, but I've seen it where then they get the cleaning and they had

DAT- Kristy (12:12)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (12:12)

the burial I had been diagnosed last time, but today they got the cleaning.

And they're like, Yeah, I knew it. I knew I was right. I knew I didn't really need that.

DAT- Kristy (12:20)

Yeah, 100% Tiff. And and I truly think again, a lot of it starts with us, right? Even down to, you know, when we're diagnosing the period, what are we talking about? Are we saying, hey, there's a little bleeding here? Or are you saying, my gosh, I'm concerned with the amount of infection I'm seeing today? I think when we start calling it something different, it's going to create more attention with our patients and awareness because.

They just repeat our same words. She said it was just a little bleeding. And you

Tiffanie (12:49)

And yeah.

DAT- Kristy (12:51)

guys, when it comes to perio, bleeding might be common, but it's not normal, right? We wouldn't walk around with any other part of our body bleeding and just ignore it and go about our day. So yeah.

Tiffanie (13:03)

good point

i've i and i've had patients myself be like well i said it was a small filling i think it can wait right and i'm like those words like i

DAT- Kristy (13:11)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (13:11)

can't overcome this as you're speaking Kristy something i'm thinking because you're you're talking verbiage and you're saying make sure we're educating the patients the patients understand that they need it and i'm thinking too like it goes from the hygienist and the doctor right hygiene hygiene sees it doctor then comes in confirms the diagnosis we say great you need period

Then it goes up front and the the treatment coordinator prints out the sheet of paper and they say, Okay, for that deep cleaning it's going to be. But then I'm thinking, Kristy, what does the front office team know? What's their education on Perio? Because I

DAT- Kristy (13:46)

Sure.

Tiffanie (13:47)

think we focus so much on the hygiene diagnosing correctly, the patient using the right words so that the patient accepts it. And then there's not a lot of education from what I've seen at least.

for and even in my experience for the front office to know what is this disease, right? I remember for years I just repeated that we can't get rid of periodontal disease. We can only arrest the situation. And so we have to do our due diligence and bring you back in every three to four months to ensure that it doesn't get out of control again, but it never goes away. I just regurgitated that because that's what I was told to say, right? But

DAT- Kristy (14:29)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (14:29)

what did we learn

taking CE as a front office team. Like we don't we can't even get into those courses without a license. So how are the teams training to ensure that everyone knows what Perio is?

DAT- Kristy (14:42)

I think it's a good point, Tiff. And to be honest with you, we both started the conversation that we're not hygienist. And again, we're not teaching people how to scrape teeth, but we can certainly

Tiffanie (14:52)

No.

DAT- Kristy (14:53)

pass on the information and the knowledge that we're learning. So ideally when we're coaching in teams, having each other cross-reference or learn, sharing with them the knowledge is powerful because we support each other.

Yeah, maybe the hygienist is the one treating the disease, but the treatment coordinator is supporting you in getting the patient over the hump of a financial obstacle, right? So having

Tiffanie (15:21)

Yeah.

DAT- Kristy (15:21)

them know the knowledge to be able to support you enough and hold those conversations is huge. So don't think just because it's perio, we don't need to involve everybody else. It it's hugely important because they pay play a supporting role.

to the hygienist.

Tiffanie (15:40)

Absolutely. And I'm thinking as you're speaking too, like, imagine a hygienist. And again, we're not hygienists, so I'm just putting myself in this seat. But I'm thinking, I've seen this patient or this practice has seen this patient for X number of years, and I've maybe just been kind of like helping them get by, which is great. And now it's to the point that like I can't continue helping you get by. And I have to have this really hard conversation with you. What if?

I have the support of the front office team who's like, yeah, we will get them over the financial hor hurdles because we understand how important it is. Because flip side of that, I can imagine it's gotta be really scary to be the only one carrying that burden. Because sometimes that front office team doesn't and necessarily like get it, we'll say in air quotes. And so they're like, hey, you do know their insurance isn't gonna cover this, right? And now the hygienist is carrying an extra burden.

And imagine if we all had the similar educational pieces and mindset on a disease that we were all empowered to support one another through that. I wonder if and this is theoretical, right? I don't know, but I wonder if that would be supportive for a hygienist and maybe change the game on some perio conversations in some practices.

DAT- Kristy (17:04)

my gosh, I think without a doubt, Tip. And and I like how you pushed it on the other side, not just the hygiene perspective, but they also need to hear the conversations from the admin team. And truly, you know, again, we got into dentistry because we care about the health of our patients. And when we can put that at the forefront, we're both trying to achieve the same thing. It's just coming at it from a different supporting role, if you will. And I think they they do mesh together and go hand in hand. So

Even your hygienist needs to hear about how the admin team te talks about finances, right? So they

Tiffanie (17:40)

Yeah.

DAT- Kristy (17:41)

can play the supporting role in that too, to say, hey, I I totally get it. Great news is you have insurance. Bad news is they may not cover as much, right? Yet

Tiffanie (17:52)

Yeah.

DAT- Kristy (17:53)

I know we care about you as a person, your insurance, you're just a number to them, right? That they will never care about your health more than we do, right?

Tiffanie (18:02)

Yeah.

Yeah. Well I think this opened up a huge can of worms and it opened up something I know that we work on with practices, but maybe not to the extent even of the the depth of this podcast today, Kristy. So I love this because we're both gonna go on a tangent with it now. But it's making me think of how much cross training we do in the practice. But we I just think that's a huge space. Dentistry has lacked. Perio and hygiene in general is

just

an island. Like we let them be on their own little island and they they're okay with it most of the time, right? They like their island. They're like, no, leave stay out of my department. It's totally fine. But what if we pulled that island closer and started to cross train more, educate more, and have more value added for the patient because we are all a team. I know, you know, periodontal health is the literally the foundation. And I I know my doctor used to say that it was like

building a house on top of an uneven foundation, it just it won't

DAT- Kristy (19:03)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (19:03)

hold. It'll end up cracking and breaking. So putting an implant or a crown or anything into a rocky foundation, the longevity is shortened. And making sure that we remember those things because without that foundation, nothing else can be as great as it could be if it were different.

DAT- Kristy (19:23)

Yeah, I think part of and I love hearing you say that, Tiff, because I always say it's like building a house on quicksand, right? And so,

Tiffanie (19:30)

Yeah.

DAT- Kristy (19:31)

but you know, with that, having those type of verbiage that we all tend to speak as a team and we all are speaking to that same language, I think is also such a benefit for our patients to be hearing that same tonality and messaging throughout. And so it is very important that we we

Don't leave hygiene on a gap, right? And and on their own island, so to speak. We all funnel back to that. And truly it is the foundation, right? But finding words to speak to our patients, we in dentistry know it and we talk it with each other, but sometimes I hate to say dumb it down, but speaking more in layman's terms so they understand. It's like the quicksand or the termites in the foundation. And I want to get you the pretty smile, but let's make sure it's there forever because.

This is the foundation, right? How are we having those conversations? And then how are we supporting our hygienist with those

Tiffanie (20:29)

Yeah.

DAT- Kristy (20:30)

conversations?

Tiffanie (20:31)

Yeah. I love that. I think periosystem gaps in general in the diagnosis, in the tree in the case acceptance, and then in the follow up as well. And I I really do think we hit something hard today with really just doing it together, supporting. I love that support and making sure that everyone's on the same page and training as a team. We do my suggestion is perio.

program. Like make sure your period programs and your period protocols are in place. They're foundational, that they're utilized, everyone's using them the same. And make sure that everyone knows them. Like everyone in the practice knows what they are because that's so key to have everyone cross-trained in this kind of at least verbiage and these conversations. It's so key in ensuring the patient's health. So I would say Kristy today, I I think hands down

It's address your period protocols, make sure that

DAT- Kristy (21:32)

Yeah.

Tiffanie (21:32)

they're systematic, everyone's using them, and cross-train the whole team. Dental assistants, front office, dentists, everyone. I think your periode departments, my hygienists who are listening today, Kristy, I love how you said my hygiene friends, go advocate for your periodontal systems. Go advocate for your period programs and schedule a freaking meeting. Put it on the books.

Get everyone in the practice together and you step up and teach the team something that they might not know.

DAT- Kristy (22:04)

I agree with you, Tiff. And to be honest with you, maybe step one is you as a hygiene department get together and pull out what is our hygiene standard, right? What when do we all agree that we are gonna intervene in the disease process and create some clarity around that? Because again, too, sometimes I see it with hygienists where one's calling it one thing, but the other one's not. And again, we can we can get in trouble with that because

You have a husband and wife come in as new patients and they see different hygienists, then they start going home and comparing. So start with you guys and get really solid on what is our philosophy and when do we intervene in the disease process and then roll it out to team. And I I love Tiff that you empowered them to be the ones to do it. And yeah, I that it's fun. It's fun. And then you'll align the team and

Have questions and answers. How do you answer when we speak to this? Or, you know, any of those things that come up so we all are speaking that same language.

Tiffanie (23:08)

Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful. I love it. That's our wrap. That's our action item. Kristy, thank you so much. This was this was fun. I love that we go into it thinking like we have a plan, you know, but something sparks and we just we always expand and come up with new fun tools for ourselves as well. So Kristy, thank you for taking that adventure with me today.

DAT- Kristy (23:29)

Absolutely, my pleasure. Have fun.

Tiffanie (23:31)

Thanks. Awesome. All

right, guys. Go do the things. You heard Kristy. If you were driving while you were listening to this, I want you to get where you're going, replay this soccer because I really think there's a few gems in there that a lot of you guys can go implement. So go do the things Kristy said to do. Drop us a five-star review as always. Hi Janus who are listening, please give us some some feedback. Give us some yes, this is great. We want a team who supports us, whatever that looks like.

in your reviews, doctors go through and read those, they'll see them too, and they need to feel empowerment as well. So go do the things, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. We are here to support you. We love you guys and we will catch you next time.

Category: Ethics, Jurisprudence and Malpractice, Office Design, Periodontics, Practice Management, HR and Accounting

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Dental A Team with Kiera Dent
Dentists, this is your playbook for building a practice that THRIVES rather than just survives! If you're ready to scale, streamline, or simply want to lead like a CEO, we're here to support you with our strategies.
Blog By:
Dental A Team