Hi Bryanna,

The periodontist hasn't done any treatment apart from giving me some brushes to use (I believe they are supposed to loosen the bacteria around my teeth), some inter dental brushes, told me to use an electric tooth brush, told me not to use mouth wash and told me to stop smoking. All of which I have done and which was why I was so devastated when he told me that I needed to carry on doing it and come back in a month's time and that it would be a year before I would have a healthy mouth. I did try telling him that I just wanted all the top teeth out now and that I didn't want to wait a year because the ones on the right top side are loose and I really doubt whether they will last a year and I don't want to wait for them to just fall out one day. He seems to think that if the loose teeth do fall out I could have a 'training plate' to replace them and I could just add teeth to this as they fall out. I told him that there is no way that I would contemplate a denture and that I cannot just let them fall out one at a time. I feel that he thinks that in time I will accept/relent to what he sees as inevitable but that's not an option. Also, why put myself through the treatment to end up wearing a denture anyway? I have read that debriding can only reach so far up into the gums (4) and that they will tighten and recede but that this is only going to abate not cure the disease. Some people say that the only way to get rid of the disease is to extract the teeth when the disease is severe. From what I understand, I have lost 70% of the bone in my right upper jaw and 30-50% in the left upper jaw.

At the moment my front teeth seem quite stable and I think that if I wait any longer, my fear is that the bone loss there will increase and I won't have enough to put implants into.

I have to say that the periodontist and I seem to have different agendas and I don't think I will be going back to see him as on reflection, I think he should have been enquiring about my general health and should at least given me some antibiotics to help bring down the inflammation so that I could move forward in the treatment plan more quickly. He seems to think that in a year not much bone would be lost but this time last year my teeth weren't noticeably loose, so I feel that the rate of deterioration has been quite fast and have too much to loose if he's wrong.