Judy Carroll, RDH

He’s a 30-something professional with impeccable home care, routine professional dental care and seemingly excellent overall health. He has never smoked. He eats well and gets plenty of exercise

Maya Angelou once said, “When you know better, you do better.” This quote echoes a simple and forgiving truth in all aspects of patient care; it’s about lifelong learning. When it comes to periodontal therapy, both clinician and patient benefit from heeding this poignant statement of awareness.

“…In the future, regenerative therapies could be as simple as the local delivery of regenerative molecules placed subgingivally to promote repair of periodontal and gingival defects. New drug delivery systems to stimulate wound repair of soft tissue and extraction defects may be as simple as applying medicaments directly to wounds..."

Warning: What you are about to read will not be candy coated to be politically correct or apologetic about exposing the truth about a dirty little secret that is so widely accepted in the dental profession that it has become an accepted and even comfortable inconvenient truth. The purpose of this article is to shed some light on a defective methodology so pervasive and unchallenged in dentistry it is the gold standard … and yet is not even common sense. It’s time to raise the bar by raising awareness about this dirty little secret.