Dental hygiene question

noonesperfect

Hi,
Is there any dental hygienists/dentists out there who can answer my question please?

When a dentist checks your gums and calls out numbers to their dental nurse, what do those numbers mean?

I've just been today and he called out "one"s and "two"s as he checked my gums. Is that good? I didn't need anything doing bar a scale and polish.

In anticipation, thanks.

floyd

If you didn't have any disclosing solution beforehand (purple or blue stuff) then that sounds like a 'pocket score' to me. They are looking at the depth of any pockets between the gum and tooth to check for receeding gums so 1's and 2's mean that there are only small gaps and not much recession.

I get a pocket score done every time I go to my hygenist as I am prone to gum recession so it is used to monitor any treatment I am receiving to check its working.

Hope that helps.

Toothsmith can probably explain this much better than me

Delilah

i am no expert but the numbers only go to three, three being the worse end. ones are ok but twos need more attention when brushing as you may be a little inflamed there. i know this probably doesn't make sense as reading it back i can tell its not that clear basically the instrument he has has measurements on say for eg mm's two would be the distance the outer surface of your gum is from your teeth. so if you have a two its not bad but you should take extra attention on those bits when brushing. it can be corrected/sorted, it doesn't mean three is the only way for you now.
If it was bad the dentist would of told you - if only to get your money for a return appt!!!

p.s. please correct me if there are any dentists/nurses out there.

noonesperfect

Doesn't want to see me again till next May.

He said my gums are in excellent form but I've always wondered what those numbers meant.

I suppose it's not a bad score for an ex-smoker (last smoked in 2000) in her late forties who is more than a little partial to goodies!!

floyd

That sounds like a pretty good score to me given that I am 29 and previously had higher numbers than that! (they are much better now after 2 years of intensive root planing and scaling by my fabulous hygenist) Smoking is a swine for aggravating gum disease so well done on stopping

noonesperfect

floyd wrote: »

That sounds like a pretty good score to me given that I am 29 and previously had higher numbers than that! (they are much better now after 2 years of *intensive root planing and scaling by my fabulous hygenist) Smoking is a swine for aggravating gum disease so well done on stopping

Oooh *that sounds so painful.
I've never seen a hygienist, it always seems to be the dentist who does all that scaling and polishing lark. Or should I say I've never been to a dental practice where they have a separate hygienist?

floyd

heh heh its not really that painful once they have whammed in the 6 injections of local anasthetic
You actually get used to it after a while!
I was referred to the local University Dental Hospital by my own dentist to see their peridontal hygenist so she could sort me out. Have my reveiw in a few weeks to see if I need more treatment or if it has stabilised. Hope its the latter

noonesperfect

I'mm shuddering at the thought of the injections alone! I bet it's still pretty sore when they wear off though. ((((hugs))))

Good luck at your review.

Toothsmith

I'm fairly sure it's a BPE score.

BPE stans for Basic Periodontal Examination.

It's a scale of 0-4 and the mouth is divided into 6 areas.

Back teeth - front teeth - Back teeth on the top and bottom.

The WORST tooth in the area scores for that whole area.

0= Nothing happening
1= after probing, there is some bleeding around one or more tooth
2= Under the gum around one or more teeth you can feel some tartar build up
3= One or more teeth have a gum pocket which comes up to the start of a dark band on the probe (set at 5mm)
4= One or more teeth have a gum pocket into which the dark band on the probe disappears (71/2 mm +)

With scores of 0,1,or2 there's nothing much to worry about - unless it's all 2s - then you really should make better friends with your toothbrush.

With more than one 3 or 4 then you are really on the doorstep of serious gum problems.

If you score more than a couple of 3s or 4s, the the dentist or hygienist may well go on to do the full pocket measurement that Floyd was talking about, and you should then go on to the more intensive treatment.

As a basic quick way of detecting signs of gum disease though, it's a very useful examination.

Award your dentist 10 marks if he/she does this regularly!!!!

How many of you with NHS dentists awarded them the points????

How many of you with private dentists awarded them the points!!????

noonesperfect

Thank you Toothsmith I knew I could rely on you .

Yes he usually does the soft tissue check first, then the BPE then has a jab about with his probe (not very scientific but most will know what I mean!)

No 0's I'm afraid but definitely no 3 or 4's either, so it sounds OK to me.
I didn't take in how many 1 and 2, mostly 1 I hope!

My teeth are very close but I floss regularly so hopefully I'll keep gum disease at bay a little while longer. Haven't lost any teeth yet, touch wood.

I'm lucky enough to have an NHS dentist, I noticed they had some sort of award for 2007 is that the one to which you refer Toothsmith?

Toothsmith

Sounds like a very thorough dentist.

There obviously are still good ones on the NHS!!