Six weeks after Active Periodontal Therapy (APT), we have our patients back for re-evaluation. We reprobe every tooth in the mouth, evaluate the tissue tone and texture and take intra-oral photos to show you the results. This is our report card. How well did we do with our clinical treatment, with our homecare instructions to you, and with our emotional appeal and motivation to you to save your teeth? (For more information go to www.lajolladental.com)
We may have been totally successful, or only partially successful. If we are totally successful and all the pockets have shrunk to 3mm or less, the tissue tone pink and firm, and you are religiously cleaning your mouth, then we celebrate! If we were only partially successful, we need to identify what is going on – or in some cases, what is not happening (i.e. daily) through homecare. We may be able to make some corrections and reconvene in another 6 weeks for re-evaluation, or we may need a referral to a gum specialist for evaluation of one or more sites. Often, the treatment of gum disease is not all or nothing. We may be successful in 60, 70, 80 or even 90% of the areas, and unsuccessful in just a few spots. Those few spots may need treatment by a gum specialist, and often involve surgery.
http://www.nidcr.nih.gov/oralhealth/topics/gumdiseases/periodontalgumdisease.htm