The Importance of a Treatment Plan

A treatment plan is a detailed plan that includes information about the patient’s disease, the goal of treatment, treatment options for the disease and possible side effects, and the expected duration of treatment. The treatment plan may also include information about the potential cost of treatment and about regular follow-up care after the end of treatment (the maintenance phase).

The treatment plan is the roadmap that the patient must follow during the treatment journey. The best treatment plan is one that provides follow-up for the patient even after treatment to prevent relapse.

And there are treatment options or alternatives for any problem, the type of treatment is chosen according to each case according to the patient, the type of problem, and the success rate.

The treating physician begins to prepare the treatment plan after taking the patient’s data and after the completion of the clinical and radiological examination and after reaching a diagnosis for the problem. Where there is an initial and final treatment plan. The treatment plan may change based on the problem or problems that brought the patient for treatment and based on the patient’s response to the type of treatment. A list of the problems that the patient has is prepared through the treatment plan, and they are arranged according to priority.

The treatment plan should clarify the necessary therapeutic interventions in terms of the following:

1. Type of therapeutic interventions.
2. Timing of therapeutic intervention.
3- The type of specialties needed for treatment.
The patient’s needs to deal with each problem must be considered.

The treatment plan includes several stages that vary from patient to patient:

1- Emergency and medical consultation stage

– Emergency stage: Not available in every patient, but exists in cases of severe and severe pain, and in which emergency intervention is provided for the purpose of:
• Pain relief.
• Opening abscesses.
• Giving appropriate treatment as preparation and healing before starting treatment.

– Medical consultations: Patients with a medical history of chronic and serious diseases such as heart diseases and valves, high blood pressure, diabetes, anemia, vitamin (D) deficiency, where the following is required:

• Medical consultation to put the patient and determine the protective dose of the necessary antibiotic before dental treatment. Or to adjust the patient’s medications such as anticoagulants.
• Conducting some medical tests to know the patient’s condition, such as diabetic patients and blood diseases.
• Conducting some medical measurements such as measuring blood pressure.

2- Initial and anti-causative and microbial correction stage

• Determine the method of oral and dental care and teach it to the patient while motivating the patient and raising awareness of its importance.
• Non-surgical gum treatment.
• Adjusting the occlusion of the teeth.
• Fixing teeth.
• Removal of decay.

3- Surgical correction stage

It includes all surgical therapeutic interventions such as:
• Gum and supportive tissue surgeries, whether therapeutic or cosmetic.
• Oral surgeries such as surgical extraction and orthopedic surgeries for the face and jaws and dental implant surgeries.
• Nerve filling.

4- Restorative and compensatory and corrective stage

This stage includes the following treatments:
• Restorative treatments such as permanent dental fillings and porcelain veneers.
• Compensatory treatments to replace missing teeth with artificial alternatives, fixed and movable, and also includes the second stage of dental implantation.
Orthodontic treatments to correct tooth position.

5- Maintenance and preservation and follow-up stage (life span)

The maintenance stage aims to maintain the results obtained from previous treatments and prevent any relapse, and requires regular monitoring and examination every period of life, i.e. the regular examination period varies from patient to patient.