As part of our ongoing efforts to help patients achieve and maintain their healthiest smiles, we recommend regular preventive dental checkups and teeth cleanings. During these visits, you have probably heard your dentist calling out numbers as they check your smile. They are measuring the depths of your gum tissue pockets. This is called periodontal charting, and it helps us keep track of your gum health. This important measure of periodontal (gum) health tracks the depth of the pockets around each tooth. The top of gum tissue does not attach directly to teeth. There is a space or pocket between the gum and the tooth before it attaches. This pocket deepens in the presence of bacteria, plaque, and tartar build up that lead to gum disease. To monitor and evaluate gum health, the pocket depth must be measured, recorded, and monitored over time. In this blog, we’ll walk through what periodontal pockets are, how they are connected to gum health, and why it’s so important to regularly monitor periodontal pocket depths.
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