root planing is used in the treatment of pockets which are
Scaling and root planing These processes will persist, causing greater damage, until the infectious bacterial agents (plaque) and local irritating factors (calculus) are removed. In order to effectively remove these at this stage in the disease process, brushing and flossing are no longer sufficient. This is due to several factors, the most important to note being the depth of the periodontal pocket. Brushing and flossing are effective only at removing the soft materia alba and biofilm in supragingival areas, and in pockets up to 3Â mm deep. Even the best brushing and flossing is ineffective at cleaning pockets of greater depths, and are never effective in removing calculus. Therefore, in order to remove the causative factors that lead to periodontal disease, pocket depth scaling and root planing procedures are often recommended.