Podcast: Routine scale and polish for periodontal health in adults

Many adults in high-income countries will have had a ‘scale and polish’ when they go to the dentist, and some will be offered this routinely. But, is it worthwhile? The latest evidence is in the third update of the Cochrane Review, published in December 2018 and lead author, Thomas Lamont from the University of Dundee in Scotland tells us more." A ‘scale and polish’, or ‘professional mechanical plaque removal’, is done with specially designed dental instruments or ultrasonic scalers, followed by polishing with special pastes. It’s intended as a supplementary form of plaque removal to the oral hygiene that patients do at home. The ai m is to reduce the risk of gum disease and many dentists or hygienists provide scaling and polishing for most patients at regular intervals, even if the patients are considered to be at low risk of developing gum disease. However, there is debate about whether scaling and polishing treatment   is effective and how often it should be done. Scaling can be an invasive procedure and has been associated with negative side effects, including damage to tooth surfaces and tooth sensitivity. We’ve updated the Cochrane Review, which was last published in 2013, and now have high certainty evide nce that routine scaling and polishing does not, in fact, reduce gum disease in low-risk adults.We included two studies, with a total of just over 1700 participants. Both studies involved adults without severe gum disease who were regular attenders a...
Source: Cochrane News and Events - Category: Information Technology Authors: Source Type: news