Fast Facts

Oh, my gosh, you guys, we are back and this week we’re picking up the conversation we started last week about new concepts in periodontal diagnostics.

This week we’re talking about SARS-CoV-2 and the mouth. You guys, a new research study that came out of the National Institute of Health is now indicating that scientists are finding evidence that SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for causing COVID-19 has been found to infect the mouth’s cells.

That’s right! I’m going to be integrating a new segment from time to time called Weird Facts, where we’re going to take a look at something that honestly is just weird, but something that we need to have a conversation about you guys, as clinicians!

This week we are looking at the 2017 guidelines from JADA, offering guidance for the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. Now, while we understand that there has been an incredible evolution in the utilization of prophylactic antibiotics prior to dental procedures, we also understand that not all patients present with the same physiologic conditions.

This week, we’re going to unpack some of the things that we understand with regards to antibiotic premedication. Of note, for a long time, we have had a lot of shifts in what’s been going on with regards to premedication guidelines. And now we’re going to start looking at over the next few weeks some information about how premedication guidelines have continued to evolve in our profession.

This week, we’re going to take a look at the current prevalence of diseases of the periodontium. And you guys, I’m going to try to not get passionate about it, but I can’t promise that I’m not going to get passionate about this because this is a topic that is extremely near and dear to my heart.

This week I’m so excited! We’re going to be talking about some of the new concepts, in periodontal diagnostics and this is going to kick off an awesome conversation about some of the changes that we’re starting to see from the American Academy of Periodontology.

This week, we are going to be stirring up, pun intended, a little bit of drama with regards to some of the things that we understand about premedication guidelines, particularly for heart infections. Now, I know what you’re all thinking, really, Ginger, this is what we’re doing this week. And I get it because we’ve had quite an evolution haven’t we of premedication guideline shifts over the past decade or so.

This episode is going to be unpacking new information that we are understanding about the interdependent relationship between perio and hypertension. In Hypertension editorial components, we, of course, knew for a long time that there have been links between inflammation, particularly gum disease and systemic diseases.

Last week, we began the conversation about the alveolar bone and we talked about the alveolar bone proper being one aspect to the alveolar process. This week we are talking about the supporting bone, and it’s important to note that the supporting bone is the bone that encompasses or encases our alveolar bone proper.

In this episode, we’re going to talk about orange complex bacteria. Now, a few things to know about our orange complex bacteria. According to Socransky, your orange complex bacteria are intermediate colonizers or moderate risk bacteria. These bacteria are what we call facultative anaerobes, which just simply means that they can live with or without oxygen because they metabolize energy, either aerobically or anaerobically.

This week is the final week that we are discussing anatomy, and I’m so excited to pull all of these pieces together as this week we are going to be discussing the physiologic observation of the periodontium.