Disclosing invaluable insight, Dr Viren Vithlani shares why he implemented the Guided Biofilm Therapy (GBT) protocol in his independent private practice, resulting in happier patients and team members.

‍Dr Viren Vithlani is a Specialist Periodontist and one of the principal dentists and directors of The Grove Practice in Royal Leamington Spa, alongside his twin brother, Upen.

How would you describe your practice?

We believe that dentistry should make people feel better. Our purpose is to support people in their efforts to live healthier lives by caring for our patients oral and general health, and helping our wider community.We are an independent private practice that puts ‘health care’ at the forefront of everything we do, and we understand that planning, improving, and maintaining lifelong care is truly important.We have a great team of people who have common values and are passionate about what they do. Our team is forward-thinking, evidence-based, and have a preventative approach with digital and minimally invasive dentistry at the centre of everything we do.We provide specialist periodontal treatments, implants, orthodontics, general and advanced restorative dentistry in Royal Leamington Spa.

Why did you choose to bring Guided Biofilm Therapy (GBT) into your practice?

Our aim is always to be at the forefront of dentistry, and making sure our patients are treated with exceptional equipment and techniques is really important to us.We knew Guided Biofilm Therapy (GBT) would provide a comfortable way of enhancing our hygiene treatments even further, providing an even better experience for our patients.

What opportunities has it afforded and what do you hope it will do for the practice and patients moving forward?

GBT has changed our hygiene protocol completely and patients love it! It has created an experience for patients that they’ve never had before and has helped us build our hygiene list even further.We’ve seen a great uptake in treatment and patients are more motivated to maintain their oral health, as well as attend their hygiene appointments!

How important is GBT in terms of your treatment workflow?

GBT has become a huge part of our treatment workflow and our practice predominantly treats most patients now with this protocol. It not only helps to motivate patients to optimum plaque control; it also provides a comfortable experience for them.The main reasons for this have been the ability to provide airflow with warm water and the staged GBT protocol allows us to target plaque control, making treatment more effective.

How does GBT fit in with your overall ethos?

Our overall ethos is to provide health care, and maintenance is the key to that.Our tag line is ‘Know your mouth, love your smile’, and this is where the GBT protocol fits in perfectly. We are not only able to educate patients better, but patients also feel so much better after their treatment.

How are you helping patients to see that GBT helps to elevate the practice’s oral health offering?

Disclosing patients and targeting plaque control is a great motivational tool for patients, as well as helping them to understand the benefits of GBT and airflow.

What do you like best about GBT?

We think is has to be that patients feel so much more comfortable. Even patients who only wanted hand instrumentation previously have been converted!We love how nearly every patient now wants it and how great the feedback has been from patients in such a short space of time.

What sort of feedback have you had from patients who have undergone GBT?

The feedback has been fantastic and has definitely exceeded our expectations! Whilst the airflow is great at stain removal, this is not the only thing patients like. Patients love the comfortable cleans that they are getting and the feeling they get after they’ve had GBT. Patients are happy to attend frequently for their hygiene appointments and value these appointments much more!

What sorts of clinical results are you seeing with GBT?

We have had our first EMS unit for over 2 years now and we can see, over a long period of time, patients’ bleeding scores reduce, gingival appearance is better, and there is reduced stain build up over a longer period of time. Patients are also more motivated, as are we!