My dentist recently referred me to a periodontist because of severe
gingivitis and heavy bleeding during the cleaning. He said my pockets
range from 3-4 mm and I don't have any bone loss at this point. The
periodontist gave me some instruction on how to clean my teeth better.
In the meantime I had a thorough physical done with blood work.
During my checkup he said that my condition did not improve and that
it is not an oral hygiene problem. He claimed there was nothing he
could do except to begin cleaning my teeth every 3 months. He said
there was nothing unusual about my blood work. At this point it was
hard for me to eat it was so bad. I went to see a second
periodontist, he prescribed 500mg doxycycline for 10 days twice a day
plus chorhexidine rinse. This helped substantially but my gums are
still far from healthy. At this point the 2nd periodontist claimed
all he could do was give me cleanings every 3 months and possibly
future doses of antibiotics when it gets bad again. Both
periodontists couldn't give me a good explanation of what the problem
is or what the prognosis is. One simply said I have an "acute
reaction to bacteria".

I've always had good oral hygiene habits, I brush twice with a
Sonicare toothbrush for 2 minutes, floss, and rinse with Listerine
daily. I'm 29 years old. Dentists have been telling me I have
gingivitis ever since I can remember. I've always seen a dentist
every 6 months. They gave me different excuses for the problem over
the years, hormones, stress, mouth breathing, etc. All of these
things have been resolved yet the problem persists. I take vitamins,
exercise and eat healthy. I have a fair amount of recession due to
the chronic gingivitis at this point. Over the last year it has
gotten much worse. Does anyone have any ideas of what the problem
might be? Is there anything else I can check into? If nothing else,
can't I continually use chlorhexidine rinse, at least to slow this
down? Could an Immunologist help? Thanks for your help.

What is the CDT-4 code for scaling
and root planing for Himalayans?


--
Joel M. Eichen, .
Philadelphia PA
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Yes, my primary care physician ran many blood tests. Here is a summary of
the results...

HEMATOLOGY
platelet 224 th/ul
wbc 5.5 th/ul
rbc 5.42 mil/ul
hemoglobin 16.2 gm/dl
hematocrit 47.0%
mcv 87 fl
mch 29.9 pg
mchc 34.5 gm/dl
rw 12.5 units
polys % (auto) 60.2 %
lymphs % (auto) 26.5 %
mono % (auto) 8.3 %
eos % (auto) 4.4 %
basos % (auto) .6 %
polys abs 3.3 th/ul
lymps abs 1.4 th/ul
monos abs .5 th/ul
eos abs .2 th/ul
basos abs 0.0 th/ul

CHEMISTRY
sodium 141 meq/l
potassium 4.1 meq/l
chloride 106 meq/l
c02 27 meq/l
bun 15 mg/dl
cratinine 1.3 mg/dl
glucose 78 mg/dl
anion gap 8
calcium 9.5 mg/dl
total protein 7 g/dl
albumin 4.3 g/dl
alk phos 42 u/l
bilirubin total .8 mg/dl
sgot 19 u/l
sgpt 18 u/l

cholesterol 131 mg/dl
triglycerides 59 mg/dl
hdl cholesterol 34 mg/dl
chol/hdl ratio 3.9
ldl-calculated 85 mg/dl
vldl-caclulated 12 mg/dl
tsh 2.011 uiu/ml
hiv I/hiv II negative

Nothing unusual in the urinalysis.