Each dentist I go to says something different.

[Simplywolf]

I already hate going to the dentist, it's always a bit stressful but recently things have been crazy. I ended up getting a chip in my tooth and had to make a rush appointment and found any dentist available and ended up going to one that said I needed tones of work done and a root canal (no cold test or anything just looked at the x ray). Didn't answer any of my questions that I had, and just tried to push treatment on me. I ended up going to a family member who is a dentist and he said that I had some work to be done but it wasn't a cavity in my tooth but just a chip, no root canal needed but most likely a crown later on. Did some fillings and didn't fix the chip as he said it was not needed as the tooth was healthy just didn't look good.

But I go to another new dentist in a week here and I'm nervous of what they will say, I'm scared I have gum disease but my family dentist said I shouldn't worry when he looked at my x ray. But he didn't probe my gums or anything, did not check for pockets or anything. Can you tell if you have periodontitis just from x ray? My gums don't bleed or anything and they don't really hurt but they look low on my teeth and I have black triangles between my molers so I'm scared and I don't know who to believe if this dentist tells me I have gum disease but my uncle said I was fine less then a month ago.

 

[Nicci]

It might be better to post in Ask A Dentist ?


I don't know enough to comment on the x-rays and I'm sure a dentist would reply soon if they saw it there.

I hope you get on ok at your appointment

 

[letsconnect]

@Simplywolf would you like me to move this thread into the Ask a Dentist section?

In the UK nowadays it would be very unusual not to check the gums, not sure if the situation is different in the US. There's been quite a shift over the years, with dentists paying a lot more attention to gum health nowadays. So if your uncle is older, maybe he's not as thorough in that regard. Or perhaps he did check but you didn't notice? (it's been known to happen, esp. if your dentist is very gentle).

Anyway, it will be useful to get a third opinion, especially if the first dentist was a corporate/chain dental office (in the US, these are notorious for overtreating and upselling). Good luck for your appointment and please let us know how you got on

 

[Simplywolf]

@letsconnect sure I'm not quite sure how to move the discussion unfortunately.

And yes the first dentist I went to was a chain and I didn't have the best experience there, and the dentist I'm about to go to is a smaller chain (can't find a mom and pop store near me that accepts my insurance). And I do believe my uncle is on the older side, I brought up my concerns to him and he assured me that it was not gum disease and it's only classified as gum disease if you have bone loss, which from my research is not entirely true as I can't start forming the pockets before I lose bones.

 

[letsconnect]

I've moved the thread for you, maybe @Gordon can chip in (not that x-rays tend to be all that useful when looking at gums )

 

[Gordon]

I'm not really sure what you want to know? You can't really diagnose periodontal disease from a single set of x-rays. Your uncle is right, you don't have PERIODONTAL disease without bone loss, you can have Gingivitis without bone loss, so you're maybe mixing up the 2 kinds of gum disease?

 

[Simplywolf]

@Gordon it's more then likely that I'm mixing up the two types of gum disease then, thank you for clearing that up as I had gotten different information about wether bone loss is needed or not. I know I'm just being nervous and I'm way more likely to be fine then not (been taking great care of my teeth since last visit) so I'm excited to see how this dentist visit goes. Thank you guys for all your help and what you guys do.

 

[Dr. Daniel]

From my limited experience, some dental practices push for diagnosing a gum disease (periodontitis) that requires a longer and more expansive treatment protocol. I don’t know what is true in your case, and getting a third opinion seems to be the right thing.

 

[Simplywolf]

@Dr. Daniel I actually ended up having my dentist appointment today, and I finally found a dentist that works for me. They heard my concerns and told me what the process where to look for it and did a gum Pocket check for me. Most of mine where in the 4mm 2mm range nothing above that and they said my gums looked great. They let me point out parts of the X-ray where I had concerns and explained to me why they didn't think it was concerning to them.
I think the biggest part that was giving me all this anxiety was not having a dentist just fully explain things as every other dentist was rushing things or giving it to me in baby terms.

 

[Dr. Daniel]

Very nice. Well done for keep searching for a good dentist. Sounds like a keeper.