#anyway i had an abscess and a massive infection

[tangledinink]

... the fuck you mean you've had too many teeth broski.

OH well when I was like eight I had an extra tooth that was trying to grow upwards, like, into my nose, so they had to go in and surgically remove that one. smh. it fucked up all my other teeth somehow so then i got braces immediately after. i have really good mouth genetics actually.

[dental-ramble]

What’s in a radiograph? The effort it took to get this Panoramic was quite massive and a definite concerted effort of the team Med Hx of Pt - I can’t recall the exact details. - basically stroke abt 18 months ago - almost complete paralysis, on PEG feeding and bed bound when Pt was being seen at our centre frm the start: 1 yr ago - locked in syndrome: can understand what’s happening around him Dental Hx - limited examination could be done when he first came in 1 year ago by my colleague - because he was seen on a trolley bed - he was completely clenching most of the time - sent off for a 6 month to 1 year review due to the limitations of what could be done for him: no signs of infection at the time, just cleaning/swabbing for whatever accessible surfaces at the time + OHI for the caregiver Hx of complaint : - when I saw him one month ago, the family c/o Pt having and incident of facial swelling of the lower left submandivular area: according to the family - given antibiotics by his son who is a medical doctor by the time I saw the pt, the swelling had gone down I still saw him in the trolley bed and I could do another limited examination Findings: - heavily restored dentition, I couldn’t really see posterior beyond the #34i, #35i (didn’t even know they were implants at the time ). - Noted that #33 was mobile but we weren’t convinced if that was the cause of the swelling because there wasn’t any abscess/sinus tracts/swellings intra-orally. Unsure if it was the #34,#35 as well because they were firm but couldn’t really assess their integrity or condition. - With help of my department head, we could sort of pride his mouth opening, not enough to put a mouth prop in but enough to realise there was #37 there - I wasn’t convinced that that was a source of infection because it felt firm and I couldn’t feel any swellings or see any signs of infection (although it was really hard to see!) Further investigations : We tried to attempt intra oral radiographs. The radiographer has a hard time trying all sorts of films etc but most of the time we couldn’t even place the film in or the Pt would clench back up in protest and groan angrily So my consultant says to put on a one month review and see if swelling returns. As I spoke to his wife and caregiver, it turns out that patient has been making some improvements in his rehab. Has been doing speech therapy once a week to improve muscle control and attempt some verbalisation it sounds Been placing him on a wheelchair for 1-2hrs per day and they use a hoist on him for transfers at home. So my plan: N/v bring Pt in a wheelchair, see if that wheelchair can allow Pt to be seated to take an OPG which maybe more diagnostic than our previous feeble attempts at intra-oral radiographs Second visit w me: One month later (which was 2 weeks ago), we saw Pt again. He was in his reclinable wheelchair, and seemed to be in a more relaxed mood, didn’t seem to clench as much. Unfortunately the mechanics and design of the wheelchair didn’t allow him to be positioned him properly. The radiographer want him to sit in a specific chair that would be better. So 3 of us decided to use our available hoist to transfer Pt frm his wheelchair to the regular chair. Even this transfer was quite challenging because our x-ray room was really small. We had to do the hoist transfer outside the room and push him on the chair into the X-ray room. And someone has to support his neck while we pushed him on the regular chair. His caregiver wore a lead apron while supporting and positioning his neck when taking the X-ray itself. And I think the resulting radiograph was worth the effort. We have a clearer picture of his current dentition. I doubt that the source of infection was from the 35i 34i or 37. 33 was the one with mob2+ and u can discern some PARL. Wife agreed for exo the #33. Pt understood what was happening as I explained to him slowly and he rolled his eyes, the Wife says that means he agrees to it. Anyway 33 just popped out of the socket after I gave LA infiltration and when patient clenched down. I didn’t even have to use my forceps. It was a scary near miss as it rested on the pt’s tongue as I retrieved it quickly w my tweezers. So pressure gauze was applied with digital pressure until bleeding was stopped and pt was fit to go. Okay so that eventful appt took a whole 90 min but it felt satisfying. It may sound something really simple on the surface and even the radiograph looks unremarkable but the whole process was just the opposite. I was initially at a loss of what to do and how manage the Pt when I first saw him, but I feel a little bit more confident now. Of course it was a collective effort of so many ppl. We are fortunate to have a hoist and a radiographer who knows what he’s doing. We are fortunate that the pt’s family invested so much in his care: having a hoist that makes him familiar with the procedure, gg for rehab and speech therapy to help w his control, posture, etc. So all in all... yeah this long ramble was because I felt this was quite an interesting case.

[scriptmedic]

Hi! First, I want you to know I absolutely love this blog. It's super helpful! Anyway, I wrote an ask in November, but I'm assuming tumblr ate it. So here is it: I have a character who has burning hot pokers/nails purposely thrust into his eyes to blind him. I was wondering what this would entail. Would the skin around the eyes be burned? What would his eyes look like afterwards (is it possible any of the eye is left)? Could this cause brain/nerve damage other than rendering him blind?

Content warnings: Burns, eyeball injuries, infections, precious bodily fluids

Oh my gods. I’m so, so sorry for your delay! And I feel even guiltier because Oscar the Grouch is my absolute favorite character and I let him down. Seriously, I love your avatar.

Okay, enough fangirling! THE BUSINESS BEGINS NOW!

I’m EXTREMELY GRATEFUL for the fact that my image search came up with 0 actual images of eyes burned with hot pokers (the things we do for love!) and my PubMed search came up with no case reports or publications of any kind, so we’re in kind of open territory: do what feels right and what feels real.

The skin around the eyes would definitely be burned, because I don’t know of anyone cruel enough to poke someone’s eyes out with a hot poker and yet “kind” enough to try to spare the surrounding tissue, so as the victim struggles, the poker will likely sear the surrounding flesh.

I don’t exactly have a data set on “individuals with eyes burned out by a hot iron”, but I would imagine that the eye itself is mostly gone. They can melt and rupture, and whether that’s “true” or not, it’s believable. Also understand that the rest of the orbital cavity (eye socket) will likely sear from the heat, so at first there may be swollen tissue that almost... fills the void where the eye used to be?

Also, this person is going to have either no, or severely damaged, eyelids, because of the obvious NO DON’T ENUCLEATE ME WITH A HOT POKER PLEASE reaction is to clamp your eyes shut like there are monsters in the bedroom.

As for nerve or brain damage... my gut instinct says that it’s possible but not probable. But again... no case reports. If you need your character to be brain damaged it’s not impossible that some of the brain cooked a bit, but otherwise, from a storytelling perspective, I’d leave it.

Oh, one other thing... infection. We need to talk about infection, and pus, and eyeballs weeping pus, because infections after burns are very very common (was it a clean and sterile hot poker, we ask ourselves?). Likely not. So the tissue that remains in either eyesocket is massively inflamed, and it will probably get infected. And that infection will likely involve pus, and it will hurt, and they will likely try to rub their eye or do SOMETHING for the pain, and then we have a sad panda day where they rupture an abscess, and there’s just.... all the pus running down their cheeks. They’re crying pus, is what I’m saying. Pustulent tears.

I think that about wraps it all up on the negative eyeball/poker interaction -slas- thermal enucleation front. I’m sorry that you waited so long for this jiggery-pokery.

Yeah, I went there. You knew I had to go there.

Anyway, I hope the wait was worth it.

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

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[junkyardlynx]

My experience with sepsis, also known as “god please no”

So as I’ve said a few times in passing, I got to 1v1 sepsis about four years ago now. I’ve never really written out the experience, but the entire two months of my life surrounding that period is a hell scarred into my brain. So. Hey. That’s a fun story, right? Right? A brief primer on sepsis is basically uhhhh, “your body is trying to fight an infection, but it did it wrong and now all those chemicals it just released are running rampant inside of you.” The real bad part is when you go into septic shock, which is where your body just can’t hold it together and your blood pressure plummets. That’s where I ended up. 

Long read, so I’m gonna put it under a read more. It’s also...somewhat graphic. A big part of why I’m finally typing this all out is because I want you guys to know why I’m so fucking scared of COVID-19. I don’t e-beg lightly, you know? I don’t think I do, at least. Anyway.

So, how did I get it? Glad you asked. Never help your friends move. Okay, that’s disingenuous. If you help your friends move and you cut yourself, god, please clean that shit. It was January and I was helping my best friend move into his new place. We were moving his shitty old couch in when I managed to tag my inner thigh on a nail sticking out of the bottom. I swore, we laughed it off, I splotched the blood off afterwards and threw out those jeans, end of story. Right? Wrong.

I hadn’t washed it until I went home and took a shower and I guess the damage was done by that point. It was stupid and careless of me, but I’d cut myself a thousand times before on dumber shit and didn’t think anything of it. About a week later, I was in crippling pain all over my lower body. The worst pain in my life (up until that point; More on that later!) and I had a massive fever. I took a week off work, not really connecting the dots until I was crying in the shower trying to bathe myself and I felt a really hard...plateau? underneath my thigh meat. I’d noticed the area was really black and blue, but thinking was hard with a 102 fever. When I touched it, I screamed for dear fucking life, and I realized it was all centered around that cut I’d suffered. 

I’d gotten myself a massive abscess, and in the two weeks I’d let it fester, it became necrotic. You might say to yourself, “Spence, how did you not notice before hand?” and that’s a valid question. Here’s some more background. I’ve been through a decent amount in my life and am no stranger to pain. I am also...quite poor. Always have been. So when I notice my body hurts and I have a fever boiling my brain, bad enough to keep me from going to work for once? My last thought is going to the doctor. It’s “I’m already out of work for a week, and I can’t afford anything else.”

Yeah, that didn’t last so long. It got to the point where I couldn’t eat, couldn’t drink, couldn’t move. I spent two days curled up on my couch, barely sentient until I called my best friend and begged him to drive me to the hospital. He did. I was a shivering, shaking mess and I vomited outside of his car more than once on the 15 minute drive. Kinda owed me for helping him move houses, I guess. 

When I made it to the emergency room, they immediately tried to give me IV fluids. I was so fucking dehydrated that they had to stick a needle in my shoulder because the veins in my arms and hands kept collapsing. I passed out a few minutes after, assuming it’d be a matter of getting some fluids in me and some OTC antibiotics. 

So began my nightmare and recovery. 

I woke up in a hospital room, with two doctors and three nurses crowding the room. Now, I’m not a scientist or a medical professional, but that’s generally a bad sign. One doctor is usually a bad sign. They began to explain what they thought had happened to me - I had a bacterial infection in my leg, it was real bad, my flesh started to die. What’s more, that bacterial infection had spread into my bloodstream. Bacteremia! Three cheers for being just on the cusp of septic shock. I was enjoying a little major organ failure, as a treat. 

I was scheduled for a surgery the next day to remove the necrotic tissue. You have to remove necrotic tissue, as it doesn’t tell the cells next to it that it’s died, so it kinda...does a whole chain reaction thing. That’s bad, if wanna keep living. So I went in for surgery. I wasn’t going to say no. I wanted to live.

I came out and the first thing they asked was “are you feeling okay?” and when I nodded in the affirmative, they gave me the bad news.I needed more surgery. It had spread from my right thigh up around my asscheek. 

It ended up being two more rounds of surgery to tunnel all the dead flesh out of me. I couldn’t really lay on my right side or anything due to the massive surgical I’d endured, so I favored my left side heavily. I couldn’t walk or go anywhere, so I spent my time curled up on the shitty hospital bed. Somehow, things only got worse for me because I learned about a very important procedure we had to do. 

Packing the wound.

See, missing a massive chunk of flesh? That’s bad. That’s ripe for more infection and almost guaranteed to heal and scar badly if left alone. So it meant I got to have medicated gauze stuffed into my body’s wounds. I’m not sure how many of you have had fingers jammed into a non-natural orifice, but holy god, that is the most pain I’ve ever endured. 

So I endured it daily for just under two months.

See, they would come by with a syringe of dilaudid to put directly in my PICCline (a long term catheter inserted directly into a large vein, used for anything from blood draws to IV/medication distribution) before they went to pack my wound. Now dilaudid is a magical mixture that does take every ounce of pain away in your body when it’s uh, dumped directly into your heart. Yeah, for about 20 minutes. Thing is, the nurses that would administer the Dilaudid and the nurses that would shove their fingers into my open wound were different people, and they had very different ideas of what 20 minutes was. 

I’d get high as FUCK for 20-30 minutes, then fall back down to earth in the next 30 minutes, just in time for the packing nurse to show up an hour later. You know, when I was feeling pain again. This went on daily for under two months, and I begged the nurses to just find a way to come together as a team and I’d wait as long as I had to for them to both come together. One main “team” of nurses eventually tried, but it didn’t last long. The others just told me to stop being so whiny about it, in slightly nicer terms. I knew they were busy, so I bit my tongue. More than once.

So while I suffered extreme pain on the daily exacerbated by the inefficient drugging/packing schedule, I was also diagnosed with acute kidney failure due to the extremely high levels of creatinine in my piss. Creatinine is basically waste from your muscles that your kidneys are supposed to filter out. Mine weren’t. Thankfully, it was only acute, and not end-stage renal failure. A nephrologist came and added some more pills (including a diuretic) to my diet that already consisted of about 15 pills per day. My kidneys never regained full, 100% function and to this day I have elevated creatinine levels and I’m prone to vomiting and nosebleeds. Fun. 

So for two months I went through this cycle of pain and pills. I went into physical therapy for a bit to learn how to walk again, adjusting to my lack of muscle / tissue on my right side and coping with the pain. I was informed that my immune system was “remarkably weak” and it was surprising that I’d made it this long without any big issues. When I explained my history of strep throat and the like, the doctors didn’t seem surprised. 

Full disclosure, my mother was a drug addict and did everything from coke to heroin, which is why she died when I was 3. I imagine most of my health problems stem from a, uh, cursed birth. 

When I was discharged, I was given a month’s supply of percocets and my doc told me to just ring him when I needed more. He was very understanding. 

I never did, both because of the cost and because I...well, I enjoyed the feeling too much. That wasn’t a path I wanted to walk down. So I didn’t. Both sides of my family suffered with addictive personalities.

I still feel pain in my leg almost daily. I’ve never been the same. I almost died. My health deteriorated greatly, and it’s been a struggle to stay sane and alive and functional. 

So I feel a bit like a coward for not simply getting a job at a grocery store or the like, but...if I catch COVID? When no one around me is being careful and I have the body of a malformed creature born in the depths of Mordor?

I don’t wanna do that again. I’d actually rather die. I can’t suffer that again. If my quality of life dropped any more than it has since I had sepsis? Yeah.

[localdentistryexperts-blog]

The Advantages of Laser Gum Treatment

The Advantages of Laser Gum Treatment

Gum disease can keep you from smiling, eating what you want, and enjoying the company of loved ones, but did you know that you can have it treated without resorting to surgery?

Gum Disease and Its Symptoms

Gum disease is marked by gum recession, but having receding gums may be caused by other things aside from gum disease.  When we age, there is a tendency for gums to recede, especially if the trait is present within your family or relatives.

Once our gums recede, the roots of our teeth are exposed.  The roots of our teeth are very sensitive.  Many people will not eat ice cream or cold drinks, and they suffer from it because they wanted to keep their teeth.

Gum disease, however, is not limited to receding gums.  Another one of its symptoms is bleeding gums.

Most people ignore bleeding gums because they think bleeding gums are normal.  Eventually, these bleeding gums fester, and people have bone loss around the teeth.  They then either realize they have a problem, or they go to their dentist who tells them they have a problem.  By that point, they have bone loss around the teeth, they have bone loss around their teeth, they have deep pockets, and the whole cycle of destruction has started.

The Traditional Method of Gum Treatment

What you have to do, is get rid of the diseased tissue, get rid of the bacteria, get rid of the tartar, make the pocket shallow.  These can be done whether you are treating it with surgery or treating it with laser.

When we do cut-and-stitch gum surgery to treat gum recession, we are opening the gum, scraping out the bacteria and the tartar, and putting the gums back, many times higher up on the root.  So there’s more root exposed, but the pocket is shallow. One of the drawbacks with that root planing or that scraping and cutting procedure is they may end up with cold sensitivity.  The gums may have reconnected to the tooth, and if you have cold sensitivity, the gums have receded, moved up, or have exposed some of the roots, so that now it is more sensitive.

But the flip side is that if you don't treat gum disease sufficiently, it's not enough. Some people would say, “Well, I don't want the surgery. I just want scale and just scale my teeth and don't do anything else.”

When that happens, you have to respect them, that’s what they are choosing, but they would have a false sense of security because they were treating their disease insufficiently.  And if you treat it insufficiently, ultimately it's going to fail, they're going to lose their teeth anyway.

The Laser Gum Treatment Method

The laser does the same thing in a different way — the laser energy kills the bacteria; it loosens the tartar from the teeth so we can remove the calculus.  And then you go back in with the laser on another setting.  The laser, in effect, heats the blood and connects the gum back to the root of the tooth.

What we are doing is we are removing the bacteria that is causing the problem, and then letting the body's own systems takeover to reconnect the gun back to the tooth and restore health.

No more bleeding gums.  No more bad breath.  And the beauty of it is it happened so quickly.  It's not weeks and weeks of visits.  It's not multiple, multiple visits.  It’s a couple of visits now and people are treated.

After you treat someone with a laser, you don’t have all the recession that you typically have after conventional periodontal surgery, so you don’t have the cold sensitivity.  Those are the things people always complained about, long term.

Because after traditional periodontal surgery there is a fair amount of recession of the gum, so either we intentionally move the gum up, or, because we've reflected the gum from the bone and exposed the root, taking away some diseased tissue, there is more root exposed.  With laser, we're not lifting the gum off the bone, we're not cutting away big pieces of diseased tissue.

It's really been a revolution to my practice for a few reasons.  First, I’ve always tried very hard not to do periodontal surgery, because, for myself, I wouldn’t want it if I needed it.  So we would do scaling, anything nonsurgical, that seemed like it worked, I would investigate and try to use to the extent possible.  And I think over the years, patients really appreciated coming to my practice, because I wasn't very quick to take out the scalpel and to do gum surgery.

No more bleeding gums.  No more bad breath.  And the beauty of it is it happened so quickly.  It's not weeks and weeks of visits.  It's not multiple, multiple visits.  It’s a couple of visits now and people are treated.

Other Advantages of Laser Gum Treatment

The beauty of the laser is that they could have their cake and eat it too.  We treat your gums and get rid of the pockets, then we can regrow some of the bone that had been lost around your teeth without you having to go through surgery and all it entails, and people appreciate that. Numerous patients come to our office after hearing from other patients who have been treated the laser gum treatment method.  Everybody talks about the treatment, and results can be seen every day — patients come back after treatment say, “Wow, that was a breeze.  I’m so glad that I did this.”

I've had a number of patients who had conventional periodontal surgery years ago — they broke down again, they needed periodontal treatment again.   These people are the perfect controlled experiment —  they've had conventional cut-and-stitch periodontal surgery, and then they’ve had laser treatment.  Without exception, they say “Laser was a breeze.  I would never do that other kind of surgery again.  This was simple.”

And it is simple — you get anesthetized, you sit, you have it done, and afterward, there is really very little downtime.  The results are almost immediate.  People come back a week later, and they often say, “My gums don't bleed anymore, my mouth feels great!”

How Laser Gum Treatment Can Help Diabetics

The effect of laser gum treatment can be seen on our patients’ bodies immediately, too.

As a lot of people probably know, gum disease affects diabetes. People who are diabetic, for one, are more at risk for severe gum disease.  Diabetics, who have severe gum disease, have a higher need for insulin or diabetic medications because gum disease is a chronic infection, and chronic infections drive up someone's blood sugar.

I had a patient a few months ago who was on an insulin pump.  He had tremendous periodontal disease and had not been to the dentist in 20 years.  I had treated his dad and his dad referred him to my practice.  He used to subject himself to the insulin pump every three days.  We did his laser treatment, and last week he was in for a quick check and I said, just out of curiosity, “Are you using less insulin?”

He said, “You know, a vial of insulin will last me five days now.”

How his overall health has improved because he got his periodontal disease treated!

Laser Gum Treatment for Holistic Health

When people have tremendous gum disease it is again, chronic inflammation in the body, and when people think of infection, they think of a big abscess or something.

A toothache is, actually, a chronic inflammation.  The body is constantly mounting this immune response to try and get rid of the bacteria, but it cannot get rid of the bacteria.  If you ever had the flu, you know that you are sick — your body is fighting this massive war against what is invading your body.  You have no energy at all.

For many people who have had severe gum disease, after their disease is treated and their body no longer have to constantly fight this infection, they tend to feel they have more energy.  I've never read a study on it, but I've had so many people tell me, “I just feel better, I have more energy.”

Sometimes some of the lightness patients feel after laser gum treatment is also because of how they feel about themselves — they no longer have to worry.  Most people who have gum problems worry about it, about what is going to happen if they don't have it treated, and the worry stays constantly on their mind.  Their breath is always on their mind.

Once patients get treated, they find those worries just cleared off their plate and they can go on with things — they can smile, they can eat without bleeding, and they don't feel bad every day when they brush their teeth and they spit into the sink and they see blood.  The biological aspect of their feeling better is having more energy.  The other part, which is more psychological in nature, can be described in how they think or talk:

“Boy, that's done. I don't have to worry about that anymore. I'm going to keep my teeth I'm going to have a nice smile. I don't have to have dentures in the nursing home. I don't have to limit what I eat. I don't have to be embarrassed about kissing my favorite person.  I like to kiss.  They just feel good again.”

Want to learn more about laser gum treatment and other services?  Check out Dr. Scharf and Facebook Page.

[yesdrdavidscharf-blog]

The Advantages of Laser Gum Treatment

The Advantages of Laser Gum Treatment

Gum disease can keep you from smiling, eating what you want, and enjoying the company of loved ones, but did you know that you can have it treated without resorting to surgery?

Gum Disease and Its Symptoms

Gum disease is marked by gum recession, but having receding gums may be caused by other things aside from gum disease.  When we age, there is a tendency for gums to recede, especially if the trait is present within your family or relatives.

Once our gums recede, the roots of our teeth are exposed.  The roots of our teeth are very sensitive.  Many people will not eat ice cream or cold drinks, and they suffer from it because they wanted to keep their teeth.

Gum disease, however, is not limited to receding gums.  Another one of its symptoms is bleeding gums.

Most people ignore bleeding gums because they think bleeding gums are normal.  Eventually, these bleeding gums fester, and people have bone loss around the teeth.  They then either realize they have a problem, or they go to their dentist who tells them they have a problem.  By that point, they have bone loss around the teeth, they have bone loss around their teeth, they have deep pockets, and the whole cycle of destruction has started.

The Traditional Method of Gum Treatment

What you have to do, is get rid of the diseased tissue, get rid of the bacteria, get rid of the tartar, make the pocket shallow.  These can be done whether you are treating it with surgery or treating it with laser.

When we do cut-and-stitch gum surgery to treat gum recession, we are opening the gum, scraping out the bacteria and the tartar, and putting the gums back, many times higher up on the root.  So there’s more root exposed, but the pocket is shallow. One of the drawbacks with that root planing or that scraping and cutting procedure is they may end up with cold sensitivity.  The gums may have reconnected to the tooth, and if you have cold sensitivity, the gums have receded, moved up, or have exposed some of the roots, so that now it is more sensitive.

But the flip side is that if you don't treat gum disease sufficiently, it's not enough. Some people would say, “Well, I don't want the surgery. I just want scale and just scale my teeth and don't do anything else.”

When that happens, you have to respect them, that’s what they are choosing, but they would have a false sense of security because they were treating their disease insufficiently.  And if you treat it insufficiently, ultimately it's going to fail, they're going to lose their teeth anyway.

The Laser Gum Treatment Method

The laser does the same thing in a different way — the laser energy kills the bacteria; it loosens the tartar from the teeth so we can remove the calculus.  And then you go back in with the laser on another setting.  The laser, in effect, heats the blood and connects the gum back to the root of the tooth.

What we are doing is we are removing the bacteria that is causing the problem, and then letting the body's own systems takeover to reconnect the gun back to the tooth and restore health.

No more bleeding gums.  No more bad breath.  And the beauty of it is it happened so quickly.  It's not weeks and weeks of visits.  It's not multiple, multiple visits.  It’s a couple of visits now and people are treated.

After you treat someone with a laser, you don’t have all the recession that you typically have after conventional periodontal surgery, so you don’t have the cold sensitivity.  Those are the things people always complained about, long term.

Because after traditional periodontal surgery there is a fair amount of recession of the gum, so either we intentionally move the gum up, or, because we've reflected the gum from the bone and exposed the root, taking away some diseased tissue, there is more root exposed.  With laser, we're not lifting the gum off the bone, we're not cutting away big pieces of diseased tissue.

It's really been a revolution to my practice for a few reasons.  First, I’ve always tried very hard not to do periodontal surgery, because, for myself, I wouldn’t want it if I needed it.  So we would do scaling, anything nonsurgical, that seemed like it worked, I would investigate and try to use to the extent possible.  And I think over the years, patients really appreciated coming to my practice, because I wasn't very quick to take out the scalpel and to do gum surgery.

No more bleeding gums.  No more bad breath.  And the beauty of it is it happened so quickly.  It's not weeks and weeks of visits.  It's not multiple, multiple visits.  It’s a couple of visits now and people are treated.

Other Advantages of Laser Gum Treatment

The beauty of the laser is that they could have their cake and eat it too.  We treat your gums and get rid of the pockets, then we can regrow some of the bone that had been lost around your teeth without you having to go through surgery and all it entails, and people appreciate that. Numerous patients come to our office after hearing from other patients who have been treated the laser gum treatment method.  Everybody talks about the treatment, and results can be seen every day — patients come back after treatment say, “Wow, that was a breeze.  I’m so glad that I did this.”

I've had a number of patients who had conventional periodontal surgery years ago — they broke down again, they needed periodontal treatment again.   These people are the perfect controlled experiment —  they've had conventional cut-and-stitch periodontal surgery, and then they’ve had laser treatment.  Without exception, they say “Laser was a breeze.  I would never do that other kind of surgery again.  This was simple.”

And it is simple — you get anesthetized, you sit, you have it done, and afterward, there is really very little downtime.  The results are almost immediate.  People come back a week later, and they often say, “My gums don't bleed anymore, my mouth feels great!”

How Laser Gum Treatment Can Help Diabetics

The effect of laser gum treatment can be seen on our patients’ bodies immediately, too.

As a lot of people probably know, gum disease affects diabetes. People who are diabetic, for one, are more at risk for severe gum disease.  Diabetics, who have severe gum disease, have a higher need for insulin or diabetic medications because gum disease is a chronic infection, and chronic infections drive up someone's blood sugar.

I had a patient a few months ago who was on an insulin pump.  He had tremendous periodontal disease and had not been to the dentist in 20 years.  I had treated his dad and his dad referred him to my practice.  He used to subject himself to the insulin pump every three days.  We did his laser treatment, and last week he was in for a quick check and I said, just out of curiosity, “Are you using less insulin?”

He said, “You know, a vial of insulin will last me five days now.”

How his overall health has improved because he got his periodontal disease treated!

Laser Gum Treatment for Holistic Health

When people have tremendous gum disease it is again, chronic inflammation in the body, and when people think of infection, they think of a big abscess or something.

A toothache is, actually, a chronic inflammation.  The body is constantly mounting this immune response to try and get rid of the bacteria, but it cannot get rid of the bacteria.  If you ever had the flu, you know that you are sick — your body is fighting this massive war against what is invading your body.  You have no energy at all.

For many people who have had severe gum disease, after their disease is treated and their body no longer have to constantly fight this infection, they tend to feel they have more energy.  I've never read a study on it, but I've had so many people tell me, “I just feel better, I have more energy.”

Sometimes some of the lightness patients feel after laser gum treatment is also because of how they feel about themselves — they no longer have to worry.  Most people who have gum problems worry about it, about what is going to happen if they don't have it treated, and the worry stays constantly on their mind.  Their breath is always on their mind.

Once patients get treated, they find those worries just cleared off their plate and they can go on with things — they can smile, they can eat without bleeding, and they don't feel bad every day when they brush their teeth and they spit into the sink and they see blood.  The biological aspect of their feeling better is having more energy.  The other part, which is more psychological in nature, can be described in how they think or talk:

“Boy, that's done. I don't have to worry about that anymore. I'm going to keep my teeth I'm going to have a nice smile. I don't have to have dentures in the nursing home. I don't have to limit what I eat. I don't have to be embarrassed about kissing my favorite person.  I like to kiss.  They just feel good again.”

Want to learn more about laser gum treatment and other services?  Check out Dr. Scharf and Facebook Page.