Improved dental health for life…

We have all seen the eye catching smile transformations that we provide in dentististy and at our clinic. Recently I saw a patient that had dental implants at our clinic 4 years ago. He came in for a routine examination with myself and our hygienist, Melanie Joyce. I reported to the patient that the health of his gums was very good and stable. His teeth were in good health with no evidence of any dental decay or pathology. This was a patient who had excellent dental health that was being well maintained with his 6 monthly dental examinations and hyginene therapy. His risk of developing dental problems with his teeth and gums was very low.

4 years ago the situation for the patient was very different. He attended our clinic with multiple dental problems which included periodontal disease and 2 loose teeth as a result of the periodontal disease. The patient had never attended our clinic prior to this and we provided both a short term and long term plan. The short term plan was to stabilise the health of the gums with periodontal therapy treatment provided by our hygienist. The other short term solution was to replace the 2 very loose teeth with dental implants. The long term solution was to ensure that the general dental health was maintained and improved so that the patient doesn’t suffer further issues in the future. Although this can never be guaranteed, we can certainly minimise the risk of future problems signifcantly with regular oral health care appointments.

The success of our treatments is determined by the long term results for our patients. We aim to provide our patients with the right information and plan to minimise their risk of developing future dental problems. Only by doing this can we truly claim to help our patients. It is cases like this that makes us very proud. This patient is still only in his 20’s yet his dental disease risk is now at an all time low. He had already lost 2 teeth and looked on course to be losing more very soon. However, after becoming a patient of our clinic he has gone 4 years without any problems and this will continue into the future.

A long term plan provides a long term solution.

Thank you for reading

Mohsin Patel