Periodonatal Disease Case Study Nursing

During the course of analyzing this periodonatal disease case, I learned many things about myself, as a clinician. For starters, my educational and motivational methods need to be evaluated. Patient education is one of the most important aspects of an appointment, in my opinion. I pride myself on providing the most education and instruction I can during a visit. It is my goal to give patients something they will remember every time they are brushing their teeth, or forgetting to. However, I am not utilizing all of the tools at my disposal. Although I disclosed the patient at every appointment I did not calculate or record the plaque index at any time, other than the initial visit. Having those numbers for comparison at every appointment, would …show more content…
This would have been an excellent motivational tool to keep the patient focused on home care, and encourage her to follow up with a perio-maintenance program. Another lesson I learned during this project was the importance of comparing the initial data to the information collected at the re-evaluation appointment. It was not until I was writing this paper that I actually stopped to compare pocket depths or bleeding indexes. It was evident to me at the re-evaluation appointment that the tissue had changed and began to look healthier. I also disclosed and went back over brushing techniques and areas of focus, but my conclusion was based solely off of two small aspects of the assessment, clinical appearance of tissue, and plaque retention; ignoring other key element such as pocket depths and bleeding areas. Again, I failed to utilize all of the tools at my disposal, depriving the patient of a full evaluation. Lastly, I learned that I need to improve my documentation. Detailed documentation is incredibly important in this profession. After examining the treatment notes, I realized how poorly I had depicted the