Peridontal Treatment

Saving my teeth or wearing dentures? I don't know about the advantages of dentures, but I surely would like to save my teeth. I was loosing one by one of my good teeth to gum disease. And I thought I am going to end up wearing dentures like my hubby and he got this irritating habit of moving his denture to get rid of food stuck underneath and am I going to inherit his habit too....Oh no!!!. So after the last extraction of my big molar on the upper left, I decided to do a tooth implant which is going to cost me RM3,500 per tooth. Since Hospital Kuala Lumpur have it, I decided to get it done in there which will be must cheaper than a private dentist. On the appointment date, after getting the X-ray done, she found that I have a big peridontal problem and most of my bones have eroded and definately not a good candidate for tooth implant. And if not treated, I will end up loosing all my teeth in 2 years and she recommended me to the Dental Department in HUKM, as HKL do not have a peridontist. The first visit was again another X-ray, which is more precise, zooming into a few teeth and also using a probe to measure how deep the pocket was. The next appointment was to clean up all the hidden plague that is inside blindly. This was performed only on half side of the mouth. Local was given and the injection is really painful, but then the cleaning is not. After that, half the mouth is numbed for half a day. And the next appointment is to clean the other side. And then finally, another probe measurement after 3 months to see whether there is any improvement. Meanwhile, the dentist advise in addition to brushing, that is to floss and gargle with antiseptic mouthwash. After 3 months, my upper left side has only a slight improvement which she says is expected as my bones has eroded badly. An appointment was made on the 19 Jun 2009, to open up the gums and packed in artificial bones in between the teeth where the bones have disappeared. It took 2 and half hours just to do 4 teeth, with cleaning up all the dead tissues, packed the bones inside and stitching back the gums. Surprising I have only slight tolerable pain until today, so I am not on any pain killer. I am on antibiotics and papase (anti swelling medication), so there is only slight swelling. Tomorrow, I will be going back to work and hope that it will continue to be better.