I was examined and told I had advanced gum disease. they did 4 quadrants scaling and planing. upsold me to to CT scan. Said I was a lost cause and should have all my teeth pulled out! because she saw my desire to keep my teeth, recommended osseous surgery. google this and you will get an idea how painful it is... never mind the permanent disfigurement of your teeth and gums.
I found out about Periogen and Regenerative Periodontal Endoscopy (RPE) treatments. If you're been diagnosed with this disease, look this up! It will save you tens of thousands of dollars and no invasive surgeries! In preparing for my visit for RPE, I was asked to go get normal X rays. I went to Aspen Dental locally two days ago. They did my examination and provided me the x rays that I need. Apparently to several dentists - Aspen (locally) and where they do the RPE, my teeth are in horrible shape and they look like they have not been cleaned in years! The local dentist at Aspen was incredulous and kept asking me... are you sure they did work.
I attached the x rays in an email to Dr Vera as support for these statements. I wanted a refund because her first year hygienist obviously did inferior work. I was pretty upset that the pain and suffering I went through was for nothing! My cheeks were cut up pretty badly and the back of my throat had a few sore spots for a few days. They refused the refund even though I provided my xrays.and showed them how ineffective their painful scaling/planing was.
Having educated myself, I cannot imagine a dentist office doing perio without some basic understanding of systemic risk factors!. How on earth would you ever heal the patient of their condition? But for 99.9% dental clinics no labs are completed, ever. Dr Vera's included. I have discovered that labs should be ordered specific for perio and Cardio vascular inflammation, certain deficiencies relating to perio, immune function, insulin resistance and pre-diabetes/diabetes, etc. For example, Fibrinogen is an inflammatory biomarker that helps to see/measure inflammation in the vessels (perio and CV inflammation are intimately connected in some people). Again, not even mentioned in any of my visits.
Dr Vera has a periodontist's name on the door. I assume that means they're business partners? My entire treatment plan recommended was over 13K! They don't tell you that more than likely the inflammation will return because the conditions haven't changed in your mouth. do yourself a favor if you're in the same boat as me, go do the research. This surgery is barbaric, expensive and most importantly, NOT NECESSARY. My RPE treatment is $3k and so far has a 98% success rate based on testimonials and the RPE practices research.
I am so upset I created a blog on the domain www.gumdiseasecure.com There's nothing there now. I don't nor ever will make money off this. I just want to warn others! I will also be posting updates on my progress as I'm scheduled for RPE in May. read more