What are these procedures?

[Laura86]

Hello,
I’m scheduled to have some procedures done under general anaesthetic next Friday. Due to special needs, the arrangement was that I would not know what treatment was needed until the day. I had OPG xrays taken and sent to the dentist, who evaluated the OPGs, scheduled the procedures, and was going to tell me on the day what procedures were needed so that I could provide consent.

Today I received a confirmation letter from the hospital, which had the procedures written on it. So now I know which treatments are happening, but I don’t know what these treatments are actually for. I’ve listed them below in the way that they were written on the letter, if anyone can tell me what these procedures are I would appreciate it so much! (PS. There were no item numbers so I don’t have that help).

1. “Radiographs seale and clean”- I’m assuming it’s a typing error and they meant “scale”. I know what scaling is, but don’t understand why they would need to take radiographs for that, particularly when I’ve already had an OPG.

2. “Debridement exam”- I sort of know what debridement is but not sure how debridement and exam go together. Wouldn’t the OPG have detected any cavities etc?

3. “RES” I’m assuming is short for restorations but are there any other procedures that are abbreviated to RES? To be honest, if that’s just fillings then I’m not fussed on how many seeing as I won’t be awake to feel it.

To be honest, I fully expected to be told I needed at least my bottom wisdom teeth out so I’m quite pleasantly surprised if that has proven unnecessary.
Thanks in advance for any help!
Laura

 

[Gordon]

An OPG is not a lot of use for anything other than a gross picture of the state of the mouth, you can't rely on one to detect decay. It's also pretty useless for anything around the front 6 teeth because of the shadow cast by the spinal column, generally speaking.
Presumably they're going to do some more accurate films like bitewings.

Back to above. Nope. Sounds like they're going to clean everything up as best they can and then check for cavities.

Yes, most likely to be restorations. Can't think of anything else.

Good luck again Laura.

 

[Laura86]

Thanks so much! If a tooth was so damaged that I needed anything more major than a filling (like root canal, extraction), would an OPG have already picked that up?

 

[Gordon]

Probably but not definitely.
The thing to remember is that an OPG is good for a quick all over scanning for decay, position of wisdom teeth etc and checking bone levels for gum disease, but it doesn't show up finer details.

It has the added advantage of being taken from outside the mouth which helps for some people.

 

[Laura86]

Thanks so much for that information. I’m still amazed not to see wisdom teeth extraction on the list, given that two are partially erupted (but painless). I’m hoping they aren’t going to tell me that it will need to be a separate surgery later. They’ve been fine for 16 years.
Thanks again!

 

[Gordon]

If they've been fine for 16 years then the guidance is to leave them alone, at least in the UK. I assume Oz has similar guidelines.

It's only in the US that they insist on hauling them out at the first opportunity.