never assume the patient’s gums are healthy before completing the full dental assessment!
I learned the hard way on this one… once I casually told my patient their gums appeared to look fine (right before perio charting) but then started probing and quickly realized HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM!
even though they did not say they smoke on the health history… I still asked if they happen to smoke and they said yes but they were hoping to quit soon so they didn’t want to mark it on their health history! ahhh so then I explained how I have to take back what I said about their gums appearing to be healthy because evidently the smoking has hidden the physical appearance of gum disease!
and then I showed them the probing depths and took x-rays (of course someone else was using the sensor when the patient first arrived so I did the perio charting first)! Anyway long story short — NEVER ASSUME THE GUMS ARE HEALTHY without doing the full assessment 🦷🙃
