If you’re like most dental folks, you’ve had a patient that has experienced less than ideal results with perio therapy, a restoration, whitening, whatever it may be. I know I have. And it always interests me that the first thought we often have is ‘what did I do wrong?’ We often think it’s our fault first. Maybe we didn’t remove all the calculus, maybe the margin wasn’t perfect. And while we certainly must continually do our own personal quality control, often there are outside factors that influence the outcome.

I’ll write an entire article about this soon but for today, let’s just think about what those outside factors could be.  If you’ve been disappointed in a perio outcome, it could be that the patient’s immune system is overloaded dealing with inflammation in the body and it’s too busy to assist in proper healing. It could be (ok-it definitely is) that darned overhang or poor margin on the restoration on that tooth or maybe it’s their smoking habit or the fact that they’ve had the same spool of floss since 1999. And it could be their poor nutrition too. Their body may not have the essential building blocks for a strong immune defense.

On our March 17 Hygiene Profits Mastermind training call, I’m hosting Dr. Jason Luchtefeld as he presents how nutrition can affect perio and caries risk and a few things we may not think to ask our patients about nutrition.

And don’t forget, we now offer CE credit for every Mastermind call and this month it will be a clinical CE credit. Check it out. I know I’m going to be learning a lot.

If you’re not a member but want to join us for the call, sign up for a 2-month free trial membership. You’ll not only get to attend the tele-class, but you’ll also receive 2 months of CDs and transcripts of our events plus private coaching opportunities and much more (you’ll only pay $9.95 for shipping). Grab the trial offer today!

Stay Inspired,

Rachel