Can I Probe This Implant? – GF013

"Don't probe implants with a metal probe or you'll scratch it!" - and so for years I was afraid to check the gingival health around implants. Crazy right? Dr Pav Khaira is here to bust that myth - but like with everything, it's not a simple answer - it has some interesting anatomical considerations. His answer is so eloquent, check it out! https://youtu.be/pLDfqe8liLE Check out this full episode on YouTube Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below! “If you can get to the neck of the implant, you SHOULD be probing to the neck of the implant...but you don't want to do it too aggressively, it should just be very gentle pressure.” Dr Pav Khaira In this group function we discussed: Can you probe implants? 5:33Screening Periodontal Health of Implants 11:14Referring patients with Peri-implantitis 16:22 Check out The Dental Implant Podcast! If you liked this episode, you will love revisiting Implant Assessment for GDPs: from Space Requirement to Ridge Preservation Click below for full episode transcript: Opening Snippet: You just got into the cuff just sweeping it backwards and forwards and you seeing whether that triggers any bleeding because that's a sign of inflammation... Jaz' Introduction:Hello, Protruserati. I'm Jaz Gulati and welcome to this group function. Now if you're new to the podcast, welcome, great to have you. A group function is where we work together as a team to find out a solution to a common problem. And the problem I'm presenting today and I'm hoping to get a good answer from Pav today is 'Can you probe around implants?' And what I mean by that is, I was fed a lie or a semi lie at dental school, like someone told me, I don't know who it was. But if you use a metal probe, to do a periodontal probing chart of an implant, you will scratch that implant and therefore that will harbor bacteria. And therefore you should not be probing around implants. So for the longest time, I didn't check the periodontal health of implants and it sounds really bad. But as a GDP who doesn't place implants, not much to do with implants. I thought that was the right thing to do. I thought I was doing less harm by not inserting my Williams or WHO or CPITN probe in the sulcus to check for the periodontal health because I didn't want to scratch the implant. I was scared of scratching the implant if you like. So I was expecting this to be a really quick group function. And I thought Pav was saying Yeah, you totally can. It's all good. But Pav of being Pav, an amazing guy he is. The only does he give us a really good definitive answer at the end, where he talks about the rationale of what the concerns are maybe and how each actually look a little bit deeper than Can you probe? Can you not? Because there's some anatomical variation, so I'm not going to spoil it for you. Let's join this group function with Dr. Pav Khaira. That man again. Pav Khaira. Main Interview:[Jaz] Dr. Pav Khaira, welcome back to the podcast, my friend. How are you? [Pav]I'm very good right now. How you doing? [Jaz]Yeah, great. So it is Pav Khaira from The Dental Implant Podcast. And I'm gonna just pick your brains. You need to teach us something today. You need to speak to me like I'm five years old. Because this, the following questions I'm gonna ask you on this group function today is very much basic things that you're probably gonna laugh at me like Jaz, why you asked me these basic questions? But I'm sure with the referring dentist that you've met and your colleagues, like when it comes to implants we come out in dental school, like a lot of other topics. And we're like, where do we even begin? So just before we dive into that, just reminder on people who perhaps didn't listen to our episode on finding your niche. I think it was episode 76 from memory. Do listen to finding your niche, it's a cool one where we discover what is like your calling in dentistry. So do check that one out.