I'm a hygienist and saw a new patient today who also sees a local periodontist twice a year. His perio wasn't great and there was obvious subgingival calculus. Many 5-6mm pockets. Tons of bleeding. I used an ultrasonic scaler along with hand scaling. Afterwards he said he had never had anyone use the ultrasonic on him before. I was pretty surprised and assumed a perio office would use them a lot. Maybe he just didn't remember? What's your process for perio maintenance patients?
Not numb for my appointment. Do periodontists numb the patient for every appointment? I feel like I should know more about their process.
I use both ultrasonic and hand scaling for regular prophys as well as SRP. I like the tactile sensitivity of hand instruments for the final stage of the cleaning. There's often small pieces of calculus or roughness that I missed with the ultrasonic. Also many people have crowded and narrow lower anteriors where the ultrasonic tips still can't reach. I usually end up with at least one patient per day who can't tolerate ultrasonic scaling due to dentinal hypersensitivity too.
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Oh good call about getting reports. He was a new patient for us so hopefully we can get some records sent over.