Smoking and increased probing depths at a young age (i.e. at an age of < 20 years) are significant risk factors for the early onset of periodontitis (i.e. at an age of < 30 years).

Automatic toothbrushing could have future potential, but still requires further technical developments to improve existing shortcomings with regard to customizsation for different jaw sizes and tooth positions, interdental spaces and choice of optimal brushing time.

Even when told to brush their teeth as well as possible, the quality of tooth brushing among young adults is poor; the main weaknesses are cleaning palatal/lingual surfaces and overall brushing technique.

Optimal diabetes control, regular supportive implant therapy and augmentation of peri-implant soft tissue deficits have proven to be crucial features in primary prevention of peri-implant diseases.

Additional measures locally applied or taken systemically by the patient (e.g. antiseptics in the form of mouth-rinse solutions or probiotics) could have an additional positive effect in the treatment of peri-implant mucositis.

Chemical additives for cleaning the implant surface as part of non-surgical peri-implantitis therapy may make sense, but there is a shortage of well-conducted studies with a sufficient number of patients and a long-enough follow-up period to really be able to recommend a specific method and/or a specific product.

Due to a continuing lack of well-conducted clinical studies, it is still not possible, based on the evidence, to give a clear treatment guideline for mechanical cleaning as part of non-surgical peri-implantitis treatment.

As early as 2016 (Monsarrat et al. 2016), a study outlined a link between periodontitis and 57(!) systemic diseases, the most well-known of these being diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases. Time and again, these links prompt a discussion about the need for positive cooperation between dentists and doctors in order to improve early diagnosis of specific systemic diseases.

Experiencing cervical tooth sensitivity following periodontal therapy? Here’s what you can do about it! Non-surgical periodontal therapy can unfortunately entail a number of disadvantages, which are the sources of some complaints from our patients time and again. For example, they complain about the longer appearance of their teeth and/or about increased sensitivity of the exposed tooth cervix. Studies have shown that around 60 to 90% of our patients suffer from cervical tooth sensitivity in the period immediately following non-surgical periodontal therapy and that from a third up to a quarter of patients still suffer from cervical tooth sensitivity after 4 to 8 weeks (Lin et al. 2012).