Michaela Nguyen, RDH, BSDH, MS, is the preclinical director and senior clinical instructor in the Dental Hygiene Program at USC Ostrow School of Dentistry. She co-authored the chapter on hand-activated instrumentation in the 5th edition of Darby and Walsh’s Dental Hygiene Theory and Practice. Nguyen also conducts and participates in advanced instrumentation hands-on workshops throughout the country and internationally.
Clinicians must be able to gain access and remove all deposits from the base of the pocket in order to control disease and prevent probing depths from increasing.
Practitioners should self-identify the presence of joint hypermobility and recognize its potential effect on the musculoskeletal system and the effectiveness of periodontal instrumentation.