Splinting Teeth????

[phobichick]

What does "splinting teeth" mean or entail??? Is this expensive?? Whats the purpose and does it work? or a temporary fix?? Painful at all??

 

[Gordon]

After trauma it's done to stabilise the teeth and give the bone a chance to regrow. Since you've been asking about gum problems though then I guess you mean splinting teeth that are affected by gum disease?
Basically the teeth are fixed together with a more solid tooth and this prevents them wiggling about. It makes them more comfortable to chew on.

It absolutely doesn't hurt. Takes a wee while and is quite fiddly though!

 

[phobichick]

Hey Gordon, yes it would be due to severe gum loss (thinning of gingival tissue having gone as far down as it can be) along with horizontal bone loss. I was kinda guessing splinting may be sorta like a retainer fixed* or cemented on the back of the 4 bottom fronts to help hold them together "until" whatever is decided. There has been no trauma but there was a mention of it only once without discussing further from the perio 5 years ago. So what does "fixed together with a more solid tooth" mean? and quite fiddly?? meaning how?? Is this expensive or even worth doing?

Thanks again....

 

[Gordon]

Funny enough, I just did this for a patient this morning.
You attach the retainer onto teeth that aren't badly affected by disease, so that the loose ones are reinforced by the ones that aren't loose.

I mean it's fiddly because it takes a good few minutes of careful dentistry to do it. I've no idea how much your dentist will want to charge for it. As for worth doing, I really can't say without knowing you.

 

[phobichick]

haha thats a trip....good timing huh? hehe

So ok..this splinting thing sounds almost like the little wire so-called retainer thingy when I had braces yearssss ago....what they did was take this bendable like wire....on one end they cement the one end of it to the inside lower front eye tooth then it crosses over to the other eye tooth where that is bonded or cemented. For this reason and my neglect though of "leaving it in" for wayyy long then I was supposed to...this is the very reason I have the gum issues now. I had no trouble with that but I was a dumb teenager and then went to live with a friend for 6 months and neglected that area....so then very hard cement like calculus formed and stayed there till I finally got it off but thats when the one dentist scared me about root planing and scaling and was on his way home instead of explaining he was yelling down the hallway ohhh its just gettinggggg down there nice and deeeep and scraping those rooooots and all...welp I was left in the chair scared to death! Neglected to go back and voila....instead of good ole reversible gingivitis....welp....abscess came on bottom and had an emergency visit about 16 or so years ago. Ever since I have maintained my 3 mo cleanings and am as stable as can be...EXCEPT.....right now my crisis is those lower 4 fronts.

I am hearing about mini implants and you might have mentioned to me before(?) but cant help wonder if those could be used for someone with severe horizontal bone loss...I guess the onlly option is probably flipper, partial or bridge. $$$ is an issue as well for me as everything is hitting me at once in my life.

Is the splinting a good option maybe say with a gum graft? I knokw you cant see me but I guess is splinting good for ...?? and for approx how long? Im sure its temporary fix right? or until other work would be done?

Ok Im rambling..sorry....

 

[Gordon]

Exactly the same as the bonded retainer thingy. I even use ortho wire to do it, although there are other products.
It can be temporary, depends on how well the patient maintains things.

Implants are do-able with lots of bone loss, but there's a lot of extra work involved. Minis are not designed for long term use really and still need adequate depth of bone to be placed into.

 

[phobichick]

What kind of extra work? Panful work? Expensive work? (implants that is on bone loss) hehe.

Only thing about that I wonder though is if you have severe horizontal bone loss and "if" an implant was an option(?)...who is to say bone would continue to lose ya know what I mean? However, I've been pretty good and stable..it just stinks that gum recession is at its lowest...not even sure a gum graft would be an option although they probably will mention it and be up to me of course but I think its probably going to be just a temporary thing (just like splinting right? thats temporary as well?)

Speaking of gum grafts and not sure I should put this under separate heading or not....but how is that procedure as far as pain and recouping and how long it takes to heal. I mean does the gum actually "grow back" on the roof pallate at all or will it always be more thinner from having been cut out? yuckie! Plus is there a good success rate with gum grafts or I guess depends if its minimal it probably is but if the gum is at its furthest it can recede...maybe its just wise to stick with reg. dentist and every 3 months when I get the perio maintenance with them just they'd keep eye on things and when the time comes???....go from there with a consult then oral surgeon I suppose? Ohhhh decisions decisions and havent even seen the perio ..however I saw her 5 years ago yet I am positive I know what she will say since she said most of it 5 years ago anyways.

 

[Gordon]

Implant work is always expensive, so extra work is going to cost... the extra stuff would be bone grafting or guided tissue regeneration which isn't particularly painful during or afterwords, but not cheap.

You don't get bone loss around an implant. The reason for bone loss is periodontal disease, implants don't have a periodontium and therefore cannot have periodontal disease with associated bone loss

Most gum surgery is less painful than one would expect, healing is usually quite rapid and there are few complications. The graft site grows more tissue. It's not actually "gum" it's mucous membrane and grows back quite quickly.

 

[Gordon]

Implant work is always expensive, so extra work is going to cost... the extra stuff would be bone grafting or guided tissue regeneration which isn't particularly painful during or afterwords, but not cheap.

You don't get bone loss around an implant. The reason for bone loss is periodontal disease, implants don't have a periodontium and therefore cannot have periodontal disease with associated bone loss

Most gum surgery is less painful than one would expect, healing is usually quite rapid and there are few complications. The graft site grows more tissue. It's not actually "gum" it's mucous membrane and grows back quite quickly.

 

[Breezy]

What kind of extra work? Panful work? Expensive work? (implants that is on bone loss) hehe.

Only thing about that I wonder though is if you have severe horizontal bone loss and "if" an implant was an option(?)...who is to say bone would continue to lose ya know what I mean? However, I've been pretty good and stable..it just stinks that gum recession is at its lowest...not even sure a gum graft would be an option although they probably will mention it and be up to me of course but I think its probably going to be just a temporary thing (just like splinting right? thats temporary as well?)

Speaking of gum grafts and not sure I should put this under separate heading or not....but how is that procedure as far as pain and recouping and how long it takes to heal. I mean does the gum actually "grow back" on the roof pallate at all or will it always be more thinner from having been cut out? yuckie! Plus is there a good success rate with gum grafts or I guess depends if its minimal it probably is but if the gum is at its furthest it can recede...maybe its just wise to stick with reg. dentist and every 3 months when I get the perio maintenance with them just they'd keep eye on things and when the time comes???....go from there with a consult then oral surgeon I suppose? Ohhhh decisions decisions and havent even seen the perio ..however I saw her 5 years ago yet I am positive I know what she will say since she said most of it 5 years ago anyways.

I had a gum graft last year and after the first day when the bleeding stopped, it wasn't bad, but was still quite painful. The place on my roof of my mouth healed quite quickly and I can't even tell where they took the graft. It did take a few weeks before i could eat regular food, but it really wasn't all that bad.

 

[scottworry]

Avatar,

Curious i just had a tooth splinted due to personal reason commitment left periodontitst do it for me. Question is will tooth still shaky as mine is so but no longer wobbly or mobile like initially before splinted.
Believed speciailist did only on top of the tooths and not on the gumline which explains why still shaky if accidentally move it.. especially mouth is dry..

Is it so that will still shaky?

Regards
Scott