Life and death in the three millimeter pocket

Abstract

Periodontal diseases are,in part, the result of an interaction of the patient’s immune system with the local bacterial population. We can measure the result of the interaction and sometimes repair it. We can identify the bacteria involved in the process. What we cannot do is measure the patient’s immune regulators; therefore we cannot predictably measure the recrudescence of disease activity or differentiate before hand the presence of refractory disease. We need fast, comfortable, inexpensive methods to measure the patient’s immune regulators.