3 ms·
The paperclip to measure gum pockets is a bad idea. These paperclips have the potential to infect healthy gum tissue with nasty anaerobic bacteria from pockets
by nextos 9y ago
The paperclip to measure gum pockets is a bad idea.
These paperclips have the potential to infect healthy gum tissue with nasty anaerobic bacteria from pockets that are already infected. Unless you use one clip per pocket, of course.
If you want good measurements of disease progression, it's much better to use e.g. a BANA test that estimates pathogenic bacteria counts. Or if you are really fancy, sample some gum pockets and get a bit of 16S sequencing done with a MinION.
- russdill 9y agoIt's not a paperclip thing and it's not new. It's a sterile instrument specifically intended for that purpose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodontal_probe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodontal_probe
- geoelectric 9y agoHe's saying you can autoinoculate the patient from one pocket to another by using the same probe across your mouth without sterilizing between teeth. It might hasten the spread of periodontitis to areas of the gums it might not have spread to otherwise. Translation only, I have no data here aside from that my hygienist does seem to use the same probe without doing much between teeth when my gums are measured this way.
- russdill 9y agoIt's been researched: http://www.rdhmag.com/articles/print/volume-24/issue-9/columns/periodontics/moving-bacteria-around.html http://www.rdhmag.com/articles/print/volume-24/issue-9/colum... Bacteria already have a great chance to move around the mouth. Healthy pockets are healthy not because they haven't been exposed to bacteria, but because they are place bacteria can't get a foothold.