Perio Scale & Root Cleaning

Don personal protective equipment including gloves, a mask, goggles and a gown. These items will protect you from splashes, aerosols and other contact with potentially infectious patient body fluids such as saliva and blood during scaling and root planing.

Obtain pointed hand scalers, which you need for the scaling portion of this periodontal treatment. Locate sickle scalers, used primarily to remove large deposits of calculus above the gum line. Also, retrieve chisel scalers for removing calculus above the gum line in the contact area of the front teeth as well as hoe scalers for removing heavy calculus on the cheek-side and tongue-side surfaces of the back teeth.

In addition, retrieve an electric ultrasonic scaler, which coverts high-frequency sound waves into mechanical energy in the form of rapid vibrations to help remove calculus from the teeth. The ultrasonic scaler tip will emit a spray of water to flush out the pockets of gum during this procedure as well.

Get round-ended curettes to use for the root planing part of the treatment. Obtain universal curettes, which are designed so that one instrument can adapt to all tooth surfaces when removing calculus below the gum line and smoothing rough root surfaces. Also, retrieve Gracey curettes for additionally removing the diseased soft tissue lining of gum pockets and scraping specific areas of teeth.

Remove calculus and plaque down to the bottom of each periodontal pocket using the electric ultrasonic scaler first, which will make using the hand scalers easier. Then, use the pointed hand scalers to begin scraping off hardened plaque from the patient's tooth surfaces. Scrape calculus below the gum line using the curettes. Use a high-volume evacuator to suction debris and blood from the patient's mouth during the procedure.

Smooth the roots of each tooth below the gum line using the curettes, as the scaling sometimes produces grooves and scratches in the root surfaces. Root planing will allow the gum tissue to more strongly attach to the root of each tooth. This also will make keeping the teeth's root surfaces clean easier for the patient.