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PreViser Periodontal Disease Risk Assessment

PreViser Disease Risk and Analysis Software

People are not susceptible to all diseases equally. Why do some people get heart disease while others get cancer? Why do some women give birth to preterm babies and other’s carry to term? Why is some breast cancer predictably treated with lumpectomy while others require mastectomy and chemotherapy? Modern medicine had identified risk factors that are helpful in determining the chances that an individual will get a disease and what the course of that disease will be give various treatment options.

What Is The Difference Between
Risk And Disease State?

Risk is a measure of an individuals chances of having disease in the future. Consider a young man with a healthy heart at age 22. If he smokes, is sedentary and overweight with high cholesterol and high blood pressure he is at a high risk of heart disease in the future. Now consider a 65 year old individual with heart disease who needs cardiac bypass. If he quits smoking, begins to exercise, loses weight and reduces his cholesterol, this individual would have a high disease state but be at a reduced risk of future disease if he treats his current disease.

Smoking, high cholesterol, obesity, high blood pressure, periodontal disease, and certain genetics are all risk factors for heart disease. By identifying these risk factors and controlling the ones that can be controlled, an individual can reduce their risk of heart attack.

For years gum disease was treated the same way in all people. Everyone got the same treatment given their disease state and we assumed that everyone was at the same risk of tooth loss if their gum disease was untreated. The reality is that this is not true. Periodontists would observe some patients who would not treat their disease and experience no further bone loss. We would also observe patients who would receive seemingly adequate treatment and experience bone loss to the point of tooth loss. The problem facing the clinician was knowing which patients needed more aggressive treatment and which ones would do fine with less treatment. We now have the data and the tools to make those decisions more accurately. That is where PreViser software comes in.

PreViser software was engineered to analyze an individual’s risk for periodontal disease and assess their current disease state. Patients get a risk score of 1-5 and a current disease score of 1-100. Patients who have a risk score of 5 are 10 times more likely to lose teeth than patients who have a risk score of 2.

 

PreViser Periodontal Risk and Disease Analysis offered by Periodontist in Long Island NY
Click to view a full PreViser Periodontal Risk Assessment Analysis Report

How We Use PreViser Risk And Disease Analysis Software Benefits Our Patients

PreViser helps us more accurately manage a patents’ gum disease in a number of ways. Periodontal patients receive a PreViser analysis as part of their new patient evaluation. This helps us tailor treatment to an individual’s specific needs rather than the generic “one size fits all” approach. When selecting among the available treatments, patients can see what the expected outcome of that treatment will be with respect to their current disease and risk of future disease. PreViser is also a valuable tool after active therapy is completed and patients move into the maintenance phase of periodontal therapy. Maintenance patients receive a PreViser report at each visit. This allows them and us to monitor their progress and see if they are on course to continue controlling their disease, or if something has occurred to increase either their disease or risk score. PreViser helps us determine the best place for a patient to have their periodontal maintenance. People with low risk scores can safely have periodontal maintenance at their dentist’s office. Patients with high risk scores despite low disease scores after treatment are usually best managed at the periodontist’s office (think how people with heart disease see a cardiologist rather than their family doc to control their heart disease.) Patients with midrange risk scores are usually good candidates for alternating the periodontal maintenance.

Don’t think for a minute that PreViser software removes Dr. Scharf and his expertise from your care. People come from New Jersey and Connecticut to Montauk for the expertise that Dr. Scharf brings to their care. Dr. Scharf uses PreViser as one important tool in the overall management of your periodontal disease. High tech can also be high touch.

Patients tell us that they feel like they are in an office with the latest technology, but one whose real emphasis is on treating them personally,
individually and respectfully.

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