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Maintenance & Recalls · Specialist periodontal care
Periodontal maintenance and recalls
After active periodontal and implant therapy, your dental status needs to be maintained and monitored. Maintenance is what keeps the result.
Periodontics — Dental Board of Australia (AHPRA) · Clinical Professor, University of Sydney
Why maintenance matters
Following active periodontal and implant therapy, it is important that your dental status and condition are maintained and monitored as required. During this time, maintenance therapy and additional treatment may be needed.
The frequency, duration and type of maintenance depend on the severity of each patient's oral health history and the treatment they have received.
Maintenance and recalls are a fundamental concept. If you buy a Lamborghini you are not going to neglect its service, and the same goes for your periodontal care.
What a maintenance appointment includes
A recall appointment may include:
- An update of your medical and dental history.
- Examination of the cheeks, lips, gums and throat.
- Tooth, gum and bone examination, with periodontal probing around the teeth.
- Review of your home care routine.
- Scaling, root planing and air-polishing of the teeth and implants as needed.
- Gum and pocket irrigation with medicine, as needed.
- X-ray review.
What to expect over time
Good oral hygiene and periodontal cleaning are essential to keeping periodontal disease under control and the tissues around dental implants healthy.
Periodontitis and peri-implantitis are controllable but not curable. Periodontal maintenance is the most important thing you can do to keep the disease under control. At the completion of active therapy a three-month recall is usually chosen, because the bacteria build up and double every day, and by the end of the third month they are attacking the bone.
With an individualised approach in mind, the recall interval may vary between two and six months depending on what each visit shows clinically and, where relevant, radiographically.
Good to know
Maintenance & Recalls — frequently asked questions
How often will I need to come in?
Can gum disease be cured?
Can I have maintenance with my own dentist?
Specialist clinical expertise
Based on research and clinical experience
Prof Quaranta is a Clinical Professor of Periodontics at the University of Sydney and has published more than 200 research outputs, over 120 of them peer-reviewed. He lectures on periodontics and implant dentistry to universities, scientific societies and study clubs in Australia and overseas.
This information is provided by Prof Alessandro (Alex) Quaranta, an AHPRA-registered Specialist Periodontist, Clinical Professor of Periodontics and author of more than 200 scientific publications. Read his full profile.
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Neutral Bay (Sydney), Newcastle and Kiama.