Dental Practice Hero: Ankar A. Gupta DDS

 ,,Bio: Ankur A. Gupta, DDS, started a practice from scratch in 2005 after completing a one-year GPR in Cleveland. Armed with what he considered adequate knowledge, hand skills, and a personable demeanor, he watched as his practice floundered, finances became unpredictable, and his lower back and spirit toward his profession became worrisome. Rather than continue the trend, he made a guinea pig out of his office, family, and self—attempting any and all personal and professional “experiments” in self-improvement. More than a decade later, he enjoys excellent new patient numbers and case acceptance, a solution-oriented dental team, and most importantly, a meaningful and positive identity. An AGD/PACE certified provider, Dr. Gupta happily shares the failures and successes with dental and community groups throughout the country, always ending his presentations with practical, implementable, step-by-step ways to be better., ,1. Why do you believe it is important to proactively diagnose periodontal disease?,
Everything that we do, however painstaking and thorough, is completely dependent on the patient’s own maintenance and home care. Let’s say I spend 90 minutes doing the most difficult Class II composite on an upper molar. The patient is difficult, the location is difficult, everything is tough, but I truly do my best, and at the end, the restoration looks nice—both clinically and radiographically. It would be so disappointing if that restoration that took so much out of me would wind up failing. The fact is, though, if the patient goes home and allows for bacteria to accumulate around the restoration, especially below the tissue, no matter how hard I tried, it’s doomed. This is why it is so important to make proactive diagnoses of periodontal conditions a major priority among our clinical responsibilities.  , ,2. How do you speak to your patients about periodontal disease? What obstacles do you face in getting them to agree to treatment?,
Patients are human, and as such, really don’t want to hear about how this condition in their mouth—which isn’t bothering them—needs to be fixed, and that it will require a lot of time, be very expensive, and will probably hurt. It is so important to start the conversation knowing that. The patient already understands that, if they agree to treatment, they will lose. They will lose time. They will lose money. They will lose comfort. What is most important is to make the patient aware of what they might lose by not doing treatment. This can be done easily by asking them, “What do you think might happen if we don’t do anything about this?”, ,3. How do you incorporate the Perio Protect Method  in your treatment protocols?,
Perio Protect is so important to introduce, and not just to patients who have inflamed pockets that don’t respond to traditional periodontal therapy. Instead, it should be introduced to everyone who wants to know about and use every tool and technique that would give them the highest likelihood to keep their teeth healthy for the rest of their life. Traditional brushing and flossing are kind of the same as having an old-school push mower. It does the job, but it could be done so much better with one of those nice, wide riding lawn mowers. Products such as Perio Protect are what shift a patient’s home care from the push mower to a riding mower.