Initial Prompt
Dental hygiene diagnoses (DHDX) are essential for the dental hygienist in adequately caring for and guiding the patient and their oral health needs. A DHDX is formulated based on the patient’s oral health and disease needs that fall within the dental hygiene scope of practice. In a DHDX, the hygienist will include the stage and grade of the patient’s disease and potential reasons why this disease may be happening. The dental hygienist must perform a thorough patient analysis before any DHDX formulation. During their appointment, the patient will be educated on proper home care routines to help manage their disease. Check out the example I have posted below!
DHDX Example
Background: The patient that I have chosen for the dental hygiene diagnosis assignment is a 59-year-old male who is a smoker, has cardiac disease, takes various medications, has poor oral hygiene, and has a previous history of periodontitis. The patient is AFib, ASA III taking the medications eliquis, metoprolol succinate, atorvastatin, and lisinopril/HCTZ20, and has not mentioned any allergies or other medical conditions. When reviewing dental history, the patient noted they had not been to the dentist’s office since 2008 due to fear of offices and problems finding a dental home. Upon probing, there was generalized bleeding, CAL >9, and 12 mobile teeth – two of those teeth had mobility of 3. Upon exploring, there was heavy supragingival and subgingival calculus with extrinsic staining.
Chief Complaint: “Here for an appointment because I have some loose teeth.”
DHDX: Patient presents with stage IV Grade C periodontitis, likely due to dental office malfunctions and smoking. The patient is unable to control plaque well due to smoking more than ten cigarettes a day. Quadrant SRPs are the treatment protocol for this patient, and home instructions will be reviewed, as well as the importance of continuing dental hygiene care. Follow-up appointment recare visits for this patient should be every 3 months. The prognosis is fair to poor due to systemic health and smoking.
