I went to see the doctor in a scheduled appointment to review
my transplanted eyebrows... they are coming along beautifully,
and nobody can tell that they were transplanted...

I saw a small poster at the doctor's office, that they whiten
your teeth... So... I said to myself, why not?

So I passed with a dentist to take a look at my teeth...

The dentist took a look and then said that I should first go to
a periodontist, because I have gingivitis... and if I don't take
care of that first, there is no reason to whiten the teeth
because they are going to fall out!

What?!!! I have gingivitis?!!

So... She referred me to a good periodontist... so I went to
a periodontist.

This is the first time in my life that I visit a periodontist...
in fact I didn't even know what a periodontist IS... he is a specialist in
GUMS...

This particular periodontist graduated from Columbia University,
(an excellent university in New York City...) which is good
because I like doctors who have studied in other countries...
usually the U.S.A. which is next door and has good universities...
I feel doctors who take the time and trouble to study abroad
are interested in being good doctors... the best... so I felt
good about his credentials.

Anyways... they took X-Rays of my mouth...

It turns out that I have LOST a lot of BONE, and my gums are a
breeding ground for bone eating bacteria.

I had nerves removed from some molars many years ago, so these
teeth have no sensitivity to pain, so I did not FEEL any pain
while the tooth was being attacked by cavity and bacteria.

Now the molars are almost floating... they are holding on to a
tiny bit of bone, and the roots are mostly without support.

According to the doctor, it is not a question of whether or not
I will lose some teeth, but just WHEN will I lose these teeth?

I have one molar that has a big cavity and very little bone
holding it in place, so take your pick, something is going to
fail. I didn't feel any pain, because the nerves were removed
from this molar many years ago. You MUST get rid of the cavity,
or else it will spread to other teeth and you lose them too.

But to get rid of the cavity, the doctor has to remove some of
the good tooth too, and it's just about all gone.

So... FIRST... he cleaned out my gums to eliminate the
bacteria... he is going to try to prolong the day that my molars
will fall out for as long as he can. He showed me on the x-ray
that some molars are barely being held in by a bit of root...

He can do bone transplants or stimulate the bone to grow but that
is a long procedure... first they do whatever he has to do, and
then there is about one year wait before he can go on with
step 2... if the molar hasn't fallen out in the meantime.

It isn't the end of the world, but I am sorry that I didn't know
this was happening until it is pretty late in the game. I was
going to another dentist, and he had given me some medicine for
my gums, but he didn't send me to a periodontist. If I had not
gone to my plastic surgeon's office to get my eyebrows photographed
and inspected, and then sat down at another dentist's chair to
get my teeth whitened I would not have learned about periodontists
and gingivitis, etc.

Initial cost for Step 1 (clean the gums to slow the advance of
the problem as much as possible) is about $500. I had that done
and now the next step is just wait until I have a problem...

The dentist doesn't want to do any complicated surgery because he
says I have lost too much bone... he does not have much hope for
success since there is so much bone missing. He wants to stop
the bone loss, and wait until I complain that the molar is
loose, and then we will study what the options are.

A tooth implant is possible in the bottom molars, where I still
have enough bone, but not in the top molars... maybe the top molar
can be tied to the surrounding teeth to steady it, but we'll
wait for that to happen because when it does, that will create
another problem, because then food particles will get stuck
there and cause cavities...

So... Live and learn...

I am now advising YOU that you should go get YOUR GUMS checked by
your dentist. Bone loss can be spotted easily with an x-ray,
and your gums should look pink and pretty, not red or violet-blue,
as some of mine does. It might help to save your teeth, which
are important for your good health.

Plus, you really don't want an infection in your mouth that can
spread to other places in your body.

See more information and diagrams about gingivitis and periodontitis
in the Merck manual online, here:

http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec08/ch115/ch115c.html

and this one which is called "From Gingivitis to Periodontitis"

http://www.qualitydentistry.com/dental/periodontal/perio/

From looking at those pictures, I have moderate gingivitis to
moderate periodontitis, but I think it is not quite as bad as
the worst cases shown here.

Yahoo has erased a lot of posts.

- Ellis