How to Master a Complete Dental Examination

By: Dr. Leonard A. Hess, DDS, Clinical Director, The Dawson Academy
This article originally appeared on TheDawsonAcademy.com, Dr. Hess allowed igniteDDS to share with our readers.

The key to offering complete dentistry starts with a thorough complete dental examination, but the order and how each Dentist explains this to patients can vary.

4 Steps to a Thorough Dental Examination

The following is a step-by-step process that my practice follows.

  1. Meet the patient, hear their chief concerns, review the medical history and determine what x-rays need to be taken.  I prefer a current full mouth series of x-rays.  Then the assistant takes the x-rays and four photos, which includes a full face, smile and upper and lower occlusal shots.
  2. Evaluate each tooth, record periodontal probings, current restorations, decay, recession, mobility and wear.
  3. Complete the oral cancer screening, muscle exam, evaluate range of motion, listen to the joint sounds with a doppler, record right and left working and balancing side contacts and record protrusive contacts.
  4. Load test the joint using bimanual manipulation to evaluate the health of the joint and determine the first point of contact along with the amount and direction of any slide that is present.

Educating your Patients

During the entire exam I am educating the patient on what is stable and unstable.  Along with the photos, I also use a hand mirror to help the patient see themselves and how the teeth fit together during excursions to help them understand why the teeth are wearing and helping them understand if they do nothing they will continue to wear.

Is your Patient Owning their Problem?

The key I have found over the years is as you are educating your patient you need to be listening if they are in return asking you questions.  If questions aren’t being asked then the patient is usually not owning the problem at this point.  This is the patient you would not move to records at this point.

The patients that are asking questions on what can we do to fix it and change the environment, these are the patients I have return for a records appointment to take study models, Dawson photo series, facebow and CR bite record which allows me to be thorough in treatment planning the case.  I let the patient know that I want to give them the best treatment possible with the least amount of dentistry and that is why I need the study models to make that decision.

In Conclusion

Get your patients to desire complete dentistry by taking the time to do a thorough complete dental examination. 

Learn more about these techniques live at Core 2: Examination & Records

Dr. Leonard Hess, DDS

Dr. Leonard Hess, DDS

Dr. Leonard Hess began teaching continuing education courses in 2005, and the topics include occlusion, smile design, treatment planning, preparation design, and practice integration of complete dentistry. He’s taught full-day continuing education courses at the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry’s national meeting, The Greater New York Dental Meeting, AACD National Meeting, Pacific Dental Conference, Ontario Dental Association meeting, and The Yankee Dental Conference. Dr. Hess also has taught courses in Japan, Germany, Poland, China, and Canada. Dr. Hess is currently serving as the Senior Clinical Director at The Dawson Academy. He also owns Union County Center for Comprehensive Dentistry in Charlotte, North Carolina.