Talk:Scaling and root planing

Hanging out
There is a passage that reads A smooth cementum provides less opportunity for bacteria to hang out and form calculus. Hanging out? It's plaque not a frat party. Needs to be changed to something more encyclopaedic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.102.39.153 (talk) 20:25, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

Merging Tooth scaling

 * Support I'm not sure the best title is Scaling and root planing, however. WP:NAME suggests that the article name be one "the majority of English speakers would most easily recognize, with a reasonable minimum of ambiguity" and "[n]ames of Wikipedia articles should be optimized for readers over editors; and for a general audience over specialists." Tooth scaling may satisfy these criteria better than Scaling and root planing. Walter Siegmund (talk) 15:02, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I would have to disagree with that interpretation of the guideline; if that ragulation were to be implemented across the board, we'd end up with articles such as "dental cap" instead of "crown (dentistry)." This is, after all, an encyclopedia, and the existance of redirect pages allows the editors to steer readers who may not have the best vocabulary (or are not familiar with jargon) to still reach their goal.  Scaling and root planing is the nomenclature used, and just as the article should not be entitled "deep cleaning," it should similarly not be entitled "tooth scaling."  A simple redirect can take care of "optimization for readers."  DRosenbach  ( Talk 19:55, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Concerning naming, I would look to WP:MEDMOS, which mentions articles should use the scientific or medical name when it comes to medicine-related articles. - Dozenist talk  01:25, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Wound healing content
I removed the following content that seemed off-topic to me. I wonder if gingivitis or periodontitis wouldn't be a better place for it. --Walter Siegmund (talk) 20:58, 26 May 2011 (UTC)

This article is not a description of "dental prophylaxis" ?
Someone has twice now removed "dental prophylaxis" as a term for describing what scaling and root planing is. Please explain why it is different in the article, and/or edit the "dental prophylaxis" page, which is currently just a redirect to this article.

External definitions suggest that this article is a correct explanation of "dental prophylaxis":
 * http://www.adha.org/profissues/prophylaxis.htm

'' The American Academy of Periodontology presents the most comprehensive definition of the oral prophylaxis as the "removal of plaque, calculus and stain from exposed and unexposed surfaces of the teeth by scaling and polishing as a preventive measure for the control of local irritational factors." Darby and Walsh (1993) suggest that the components of the routine prophylaxis should include, but not limited to, patient/client education, supra- and subgingival scaling, and polishing as appropriate. ''

-- DMahalko (talk) 07:45, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

signaling ambiguity in section name
The new section's name "Physical principles - how does it work?" is rather vague. A question arises as to physical principal of what? The name should be more specific. -- Ascetic Rosé   11:54, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

Chlorhexidine glutamate?
The article mentions "chlorhexidine glutamate", which I've never heard of; should this be "chlorhexidine gluconate" instead? Are they synonyms? Is this a British/American English difference? 74.92.140.243 (talk) 17:15, 26 October 2014 (UTC)

Clarify root planing
Periodontitis says " In the past, root planing was used (removal of cemental layer as well as calculus). " but there seems no mention of cemental removal here, or the alternative of debridement (just removing the calculus). This article seems inconsistent with the other two. Should it be renamed, and do we need a scaling and debridement (instead) ? - Rod57 (talk) 13:58, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

, these articles are a mess. All dental articles are a mess.

As far as I am aware, the term root planing implies deliberate cementum removal. However it is highly likely that some cementum is also removed during and root surface instrumentation, subgingival scale, non surgical periodontal therapy or whatever you want to call it.

Honestly I think the best approach is to merge everything (i.e. this article, debridement (dental), tooth polishing) into one article and can carefully explain the minor differences (according to some sources) between the terms.

Mainly there are 3 topics here:


 * clean above the gumline (supragingival scale)
 * polish - smoothing the surface of the tooth, usually after a scale
 * clean below the gumline (subgingival scale). Matthew Ferguson (talk) 18:15, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Does the 'Plaque build up and bone loss' section belong here
'Plaque build up and bone loss' is a large section and not part of the 'scaling and root planing' procedure. Can we refer instead to another article, or does this one need renaming ? - Rod57 (talk) 14:08, 2 December 2015 (UTC)
 * this section relates more to the articles on plaque and periodontitis imo. Matthew Ferguson (talk) 19:21, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Regarding Effectiveness Section
This section does not site the most recent articles about the effectiveness of the scaling and root planing. A good review regarding this is by Bader or Beirne et al

The 90 days healing time also requires citation. Bk5499 (talk) 19:58, 25 April 2017 (UTC)