Turning Boring Probing Into the Basis of Your Appointments

Probing is underrated! It is the most basic tool that I use for OHI and treatment. Seeing is believing in dentistry, so use that! When you sit down a patient and you go to probe, repeat after me.

"So the first thing i'm going to be doing is probing your mouth. This is where I measure your overall gum tissue and bone level health. I will be calling out a series of numbers. 2 and 3 are normal and healthy, 4 is gingivitis or inflammation in the areas, and 5 and above is bone loss. From there, we can assess and evaluate which areas you are doing good on, and which areas we both need to focus more on."

After the probing, they will hear all those scary numbers! That's when I go into OHI and dental Treatments. I never ask a patient before if they floss, because I know they will lie. It makes it a lot harder to lie about their daily habits after I called out all those 4 and 5 mm pockets.