advice please on gum disease?

Question

i have gum disease and have lost most of my back teeth, i have had root treatment on the three i have left. I have a cap on one of my teeth and one of my front teeth is loose. I seem to suffer one infection after an other and have an awful taste coming from these teeth and suffer from bad breath i am at the end of my tether with this as it is so embarasing my dentist seems to just want to do root treatment but i end up losing the teeth eventually im so desperate that im thinking of just getting them pulled and hopefully resolve the bad breath i would like to know what options i have as i dont want to have teeth that come in and out any advice would be gratefully accepted

Answer 1

Your dentist may not be qualified to treat gum disease, although he may be trying in your case. You need to see a Periodontist for an exam and his advise. If you've had root planing it needs to be followed up with extensive antibiotic treatment placed in the gums, you also need to be seen a lot more often. You probably need gum surgery so you can keep the teeth and their surrounding tissue clean. With deep pockets it is impossible for a patient to keep them clean with just a toothbrush and floss. Your only able to reach about 3mm which is the typical depth of healthy tissue. If you have deeper pockets, which I'm sure you do, then you can't keep them clean even with your Dentist's root planing treatment unless he does it every day. If you don't want to loose the rest of your teeth, you need to see a periodontist
very quickly. Follow the advise given and continue with follow up care from the periodontist office and ask him to refer you to another dentist to do the follow up treatment, someone he knows that knows how to treat perio disease rather that just let you live with it. The loose teeth may benefit from some splinting to give them more stability until the infection is cleared up. This will also clear up your bad breath problem. It is the infection that is smelling and tasting so bad. Not to mention that this infection is affecting your whole body also.

Answer 2

See a periodontist (gum disease specialist), rather than a general dentist. It sounds to me like your dentist has no idea what he is doing and doesn't care either, and this is hardly surprising if he has never had specialist periodontal training. If you're in the UK, you can ask your dentist to refer you to one so that you receive treatment on the NHS. If you're not in the UK, or you are but you prefer to go privately, then just search online to find someone or ask friends/colleagues for recommendations.

However, if your teeth are already loose it may be too late for them to do anything. This would mean that you've already lost a substantial amount of bone, so there is nothing to hold the tooth in place. Sometimes they can use a bridge to attach them to other teeth and hold them in place, but if you've already lost many other teeth this may not be an option.

If you do decide to get them pulled, don't forget to ask about implants so that you don't have to spend the rest of your life wearing dentures.

Answer 3

This is an awful problem for you and I can sympathise with you. Firstly I would say floss your teeth twice a day and get a sonicare toothbrush. Gum disease is often caused by plaque not being successfully removed and this in itself causes bad breath and can be a major contributary factor to gum disease. A sonicare toothbrush removes plaque by destroying the tiny hairs on the side of the plaque that lock on to the teeth, often below the gum line. This cannot be seen by the naked eye. You also need to floss your tongue to remove bacteria which is another source of bad breath. Once you have good oral hygiene by flossing etc. the loose teeth can last a lot longer and your bad breath will soon disappear.

Answer 4

My mum had the same problem, many years ao. She was ill every time she had an infection and feeling sick the rest of the time. She got to the stage where she had all the teeth removed just to get some relief from the symptoms. After about a month she was a different woman, it was the first time I had actually seen her well after much suffering. Once she had her dentures fitted she never looked back;

Answer 5

I think you have left it a little late, I think the best thing for killing gum disease is Hydrogen Peroxide, mix one part H/G to two parts warm water, this makes a very good mouth wash, wash mouth out three or four times a day, should do the trick, it will stop you being a foul mouthed person.

Answer 6

You don't seem to like your dentist, so I would try going to a new one and getting more opionions from people that know what they are doing. And sounds like you just need to get them pulled and get dentures, it's better having fake teeth , then rotten ones, that make u have bad breath. And you won't be embarrassed to smile once you have dentures.

Answer 7

It is most important to go to see a dentist Gum disease can be cured with antibiotics

Answer 8

Go to the chemist and ask for some potassium permanganate crystals (condy's crystals) dissolve them in water and swish and gargle.It's a powerful antiseptic my gran used and then my Mum and now me. It may not help but it certainly can't hurt and it doesn't taste bad.

Answer 9

if your not happy with your dentist it could be an option to change to another and see how you get on from there, go to the chemist and buy corsydyl its a mouth wash ive used it before and its good.

Answer 10

a periodontologist is the right person help u