The 20-minute exam most adults have never had

Twenty minutes. No needles, no drilling, nothing to recover from. That is the whole exam, and it is the difference between catching gum disease early and finding out years too late. Periodontal disease does its damage quietly. Most people who lose teeth to it never felt a thing until the end.

The AAP calls it a Comprehensive Periodontal Evaluation and recommends one every year. It assesses six things: your teeth, your plaque, your gums, your bite, your bone structure, and your risk factors. Here is how that plays out in the chair.

It starts with talking. Medical history, medications, diabetes, smoking, whether your parents kept their teeth. These change how closely the exam has to watch things.

Then your gums get measured with a small probe. Healthy gums fit a tooth like a turtleneck fits your neck. The probe reads the space between gum and tooth in millimeters, all the way around, every tooth. Threes are healthy. The pattern of anything deeper shows where disease is active, long before anything hurts.

Each tooth gets checked for movement, wear, recession. A tooth that has started to drift is sending a message about the bone underneath it. The X-rays show that bone directly. Bone loss is the part of gum disease you cannot see in a mirror, and it is the part that costs teeth.

Where plaque collects gets a look too, which tells you what your home routine reaches and what it misses. Then the bite, because teeth that hit unevenly load the bone unevenly, and bite problems and gum problems make each other worse.

Then you get a straight answer. Healthy. Early disease that can be stopped. Or established disease that needs treatment. All three beat not knowing.

Periodontal disease almost always starts quietly and gets harder to treat the longer it runs. The yearly exam is how it gets caught while the fix is still simple.

If you cannot remember your last real periodontal exam, the kind with numbers, that is your answer. New patients are welcome from Beverly Hills and across the west side, no referral needed. The FAQ page covers the common questions, or call (310) 903-7674.

Dr. Sharyar Baradaran, DDS, MS is a periodontist in Beverly Hills and a member of the American Academy of Periodontology.