I got the picture to the left off of the internet to show those of you who may not be aware of what Periodontitis, or gum disease, is and its causes.
Basically it's caused by not caring properly for your teeth. Plain and simple ... it's bad oral hygiene.
The risk factors include smoking, hormonal changes in females, diabetes, AIDS, cancer, certain drugs and genetics. Unfortunately for me I am a woman who smoked for 20 years and have a family history of bad teeth so I was at a much higher risk. Couple that with my lazy flossing habits and I was a shoe-in for this disease.
I had had the first portion of the surgery done back on January 3, 2014 for the left half of my mouth. Last Friday, February 7th, 2014 I had surgery on the right half of my mouth. During surgery they basically open up all your gums to expose the tooth all the way to the roots, smooth out the jagged areas and add some bone grafts where needed, then stitch everything back together. The stitches are horribly annoying and begin to hurt after 4 days. I'm supposed to wait until they fall out on their own or my follow-up appt to have them removed, but I had a few that were really bugging the tar out of me so I convinced them to fall out a day or two sooner than they had planned :)
One interesting thing I learned after the 2nd surgery was that they used ground cadaver bone! I'm not sure how I feel about that exactly; kinda freaks me out, but also the scientist/future organ donor in me thinks it's kinda cool that someone was able to "pay it forward" after their demise.
Anyways I'm back on restrictions from exercise for the week following the surgery or until I feel up to it which ever is greater. As luck would have it this half of my mouth was in worse shape that the previous half and I'm in a bit more pain. I did get to see a comparison of my before and after x-rays before I left the office Friday and I am really impressed with the difference.
Now we just hope it all stays put and does what it's supposed to do.
FINGERS CROSSED!
I think I will wait until Saturday to get back on the exercise wagon. Can't wait to go running with Miss Lily again. She's so awesome!
Got to run....
Do you floss and brush 2x a day? Do you use a Sonicare toothbrush? Do you follow the rule "only brush and floss the ones you want to keep?" Have you experienced Periodontal surgery? What was the outcome?
Basically it's caused by not caring properly for your teeth. Plain and simple ... it's bad oral hygiene.
The risk factors include smoking, hormonal changes in females, diabetes, AIDS, cancer, certain drugs and genetics. Unfortunately for me I am a woman who smoked for 20 years and have a family history of bad teeth so I was at a much higher risk. Couple that with my lazy flossing habits and I was a shoe-in for this disease.
I had had the first portion of the surgery done back on January 3, 2014 for the left half of my mouth. Last Friday, February 7th, 2014 I had surgery on the right half of my mouth. During surgery they basically open up all your gums to expose the tooth all the way to the roots, smooth out the jagged areas and add some bone grafts where needed, then stitch everything back together. The stitches are horribly annoying and begin to hurt after 4 days. I'm supposed to wait until they fall out on their own or my follow-up appt to have them removed, but I had a few that were really bugging the tar out of me so I convinced them to fall out a day or two sooner than they had planned :)
One interesting thing I learned after the 2nd surgery was that they used ground cadaver bone! I'm not sure how I feel about that exactly; kinda freaks me out, but also the scientist/future organ donor in me thinks it's kinda cool that someone was able to "pay it forward" after their demise.
Anyways I'm back on restrictions from exercise for the week following the surgery or until I feel up to it which ever is greater. As luck would have it this half of my mouth was in worse shape that the previous half and I'm in a bit more pain. I did get to see a comparison of my before and after x-rays before I left the office Friday and I am really impressed with the difference.
Now we just hope it all stays put and does what it's supposed to do.
FINGERS CROSSED!
I think I will wait until Saturday to get back on the exercise wagon. Can't wait to go running with Miss Lily again. She's so awesome!
Got to run....
Do you floss and brush 2x a day? Do you use a Sonicare toothbrush? Do you follow the rule "only brush and floss the ones you want to keep?" Have you experienced Periodontal surgery? What was the outcome?