Identifying treatment needs

Treatment goals

It is useful to consider at an early stage the goal of treatment for each individual and how this will be assessed. For example in a healthy patient, the goal may be to avoid the onset of disease and to maintain an intact periodontium.

In a patient with periodontitis, the goal may be to achieve:

• high levels of plaque control; 
• complete resolution of gingival bleeding; 
• probing pocket depths of ≤4 mm throughout the mouth; 
• absence of bleeding at 4 mm sites. 

However, this is not always achievable and individual patient wishes and oral hygiene skills should be considered ‘holistically’ along with the long-term goals for the dentition when setting a treatment goal. For example, there may be situations where long-term retention of teeth is the goal rather than complete disease resolution. 

When ideal goals are not achieved, or the patient does not wish the advanced or complex treatment required to achieve these goals, it is important that the patient understands that their periodontitis may deteriorate and the potential consequences of this, including an increased risk of tooth loss.

The treatment goal can be used as the basis for monitoring the response to treatment and directing the care provided during the maintenance phase.