PERIODONTAL DIAGNOSIS IN TREATED PERIODONTITIS - WHY, WHEN AND HOW TOUSE CLINICAL-PARAMETERS

The objective of clinical periodontal diagnosis in maintenance patient s is to monitor the risk for periodontal disease progression. Risk for progression should be continuously monitored at the patient, tooth an d site level at each recall appointment. At the patient level, the sig nificance of systemic diseases, cigarette smoking, compliance with the recall program, loss of support in relation to the patient's age, ful l mouth plaque and/or bleeding scores, and prevalence of residual pock ets are of key importance. At the tooth and tooth-site levels, residua l periodontal support, inflammatory parameters and their persistence, presence of ecological niches with difficult access such as furcations , and presence of iatrogenic factors have to be put into proportion wi th the patient's overall risk profile. The information gathered by cli nical monitoring and continuous multilevel risk assessment facilitates an immediate appreciation of the periodontal health status of an indi vidual and the possible risk for further infection and/or disease prog ression in the dentition and at a particular tooth or site.