Fast Facts: Perio Edition Episode 57
[Andrew Johnston, RDH]
Welcome back everyone! You are listening to another episode of Fast Facts- Perio Edition brought to you by A Tale of Two Hygienists in partnership with DentistRX. And now, please welcome your host, Katrina Sanders.
[Katrina Sanders, RDH]
Hello, and welcome back to the conversation. This week's episode, we are going to be moving beyond the staging and grading. Remember, we only stage or grade a patient if they fit into the category of Plain Jane periodontitis. But we acknowledge that patients can have other types of displays of periodontal disease. And this week's episode is going to begin the conversation around a classification system called "Periodontitis as a Manifestation of Systemic Disease". Now, I want to be very clear. The American Academy of Periodontology has been clarifying this since 1999 that there is a variety of different systemic diseases or conditions that can affect the course of periodontitis, or they will have a negative impact on the attachment apparatus of the periodontium. And so this new classification system, although it looks new to us, actually isn't new.
This Periodontitis as a Manifestation of Systemic Disease was classified in 1999, and it comprised a relatively obscure classification of diseases. To be clear, when we talk about patients who present with perio as a manifestation of systemic disease, we are talking about systemic diseases such as Familial and Cyclic Neutropenia, Trisomy 21, Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency Syndrome - That's a mouthful, pun intended, Papillon-Lefèvre Syndrome, Chediak Higashi Syndrome, Histiocytosis Syndrome, Glycogen Storage Disease, Infantile Genetic Agranulocytosis, Cohen Syndrome, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, Hypophosphatasia associated or Hematological disorders.
And so the reason why I bring this up is because oftentimes when clinicians initially look at this classification perio as a manifestation of systemic disease, the first thing that we think is, oh, this must be our diabetic patients. This must be our patients that have a cancer in which that cancer has an interdependent link back to periodontal disease. This must be a patient who has cardiovascular disease. And I want to be very clear when we're talking about Perio as a Manifestation of Systemic Disease, these are patients in which the disease process that they're presenting with, whatever that disease may be, that particular disease is a causative agent that the patient will experience periodontal disease.
In fact, the American Academy of Periodontology clarifies that if we're going to classify these patients as Perio as a Manifestation of Systemic Disease, that these are mainly rare systemic conditions. And when patients have these relatively rare systemic conditions, these systemic conditions, although rare, have a major effect on the course of periodontitis, the more common conditions, the ones that we look at like diabetes. These are going to be conditions that we will see later on in the series. When we talk about periodontitis associated or as an acquired deformity and condition on the periodontium. And so we will absolutely be taking a look at those systemic diseases or conditions affecting the periodontal supporting tissues. These are the disorders that we understand will result in loss of tissue. That's not what we're talking about in the next several episodes. So join me as over the next few weeks, we unpack these unique systemic diseases. These systemic diseases that, although rare, play a significant role in the course of periodontitis, have a negative impact on our periodontal supporting tissues, and ultimately, if an individual presents with any one of these types of systemic diseases, the likelihood that they will experience periodontal disease is extremely high. With that, thank you for joining us today. We look forward to seeing you next week to continue the conversation around Periodontitis as a Manifestation of Systemic Disease.
This has been another episode of Fast Facts - Perio Edition with Katrina Sanders, RDH. Please feel free to reach me on Instagram @thedentalwinegenist or on my website www.KatrinaSanders.com Cheers.
[Andrew Johnston, RDH]
Thank you for listening to another episode of Fast Facts - Perio Edition, brought to you in part by DentistRX makers of the InteliSonic line of power brushes. Find out more by visiting their website at www.dentistrx.com. We'll see you next week for another Fast Fact!
