Periodontal Maintenance Therapy
A programme of regular professional oral hygiene procedures and monitoring provided to patients following active periodontal treatment, intended to prevent disease recurrence.
Full Definition
Periodontal Maintenance Therapy (PMT), also termed supportive periodontal therapy (SPT), encompasses the scheduled, long-term recall visits during which a clinician performs professional debridement, re-assesses clinical indices, and reinforces home care instruction for patients who have completed active periodontal treatment. In dental research manuscripts, PMT is often the framework within which longitudinal outcomes are evaluated, and editors should confirm that recall intervals, procedures performed, and compliance rates are all clearly documented. The term 'maintenance' is preferred over 'supportive care' in many current guidelines, though both appear in the literature. Authors should distinguish between the active treatment phase and the maintenance phase, as conflating them distorts reported outcomes. Relevant reporting standards include the EFP and AAP periodontal classification guidelines.
Usage
Usage note: PMT and SPT are used interchangeably in the literature; editors should impose consistent use of one term throughout a manuscript and note the chosen synonym in an author query if the two are mixed.
In Context
- "Participants were enrolled in a structured periodontal maintenance therapy programme with three-monthly recall visits for two years." — Methods section of a longitudinal periodontal cohort study
- "Non-compliance with periodontal maintenance therapy was identified as a significant predictor of disease recurrence in the multivariable model." — Results and discussion of a periodontal outcomes paper