On The Beat 03/25/20 - Golden Triangle Periodontal Center on Gum Disease

Troy talks to Dr. John Starr from the Golden Triangle Periodontal Center on the topic of gum disease or pyrea.

Welcome back to on the beat, everyone.

I'm over here with dr. john starr from golden triangle periodontal center, and we're talking about an issue that you may or may not have.

We're talking about periodontal disease.

What is the dumbed down version of that?

Dr. starr: well, periodontal disease is gum disease or pyrea.

You hear the different terms for it, but it's basically disease of the supportive structures of your teeth.

Host: ok, how do i know sitting at home that i have that or is it something that i need you to tell me?

Dr. starr: well, it's very sneaky, and it doesn't hurt host: isn't that always the way?

Dr. starr: yes, it doesn't hurt until you get to the latter stages when you start losing teeth.

Well, basically we're looking for symptoms such as bleeding gums, recession, soreness, swollen puffy gums, loose teeth.

Those are the kind of things that we look for.

Host: now, let's just be honest.

Is it from people who don't take care of their teeth?

Is it a side effect for maybe not going in and having a regular dental cleaning, or is it something that comes on from the environment, like bad diet, things like that?

Dr. starr: well, certainly somebody that doesn't take care of things can get in trouble just like not changing oil in your car, not checking air in your tires.

Host: you do have to do all that, do you?

Haha!

Dr. starr: not really, no.

But it can affect anybody because it is an infection.

In fact, 81% of the people walking around out there have some form of periodontal disease and i include myself.

Host: really?

Dr. starr: and so once you figure it out, the treatment is easy to mesh, just like diabetes for example.

Once you get it under control, it's a manageable disease.

Host: so it is a health issue?

Dr. starr: absolutely.

It's tied into a lot of different things, lot of different health issues.

Host: ok, now let's talk about some of the signs that you will see.

Now you said, puffiness of the gum.

Is it loose teeth?

I would assume that would be when it's pretty advanced.

Dr. starr: that's usually when it's getting pretty advanced.

That's a big red flag there.

Host: how do i come back from that or am i a lost cause?

Dr. starr: no, you're not a lost cause.

A lot of times we can regenerate bone, we can regenerate gum tissues, we can have all kinds of treatment.

And we use kind of a holistic approach these days.

Host: oh, do you?

Dr. starr: yeah, we try to get your body to do the healing for us.

Host: ok, now i do remember in conversations past people say you have pockets.

What are pockets?

Dr. starr: well, as you lose bone, a pocket is formed.

And so a pocket is the distance from the top of the bone level to the top of the gum.

And as the bone level goes down the root surface, a pocket is formed, and that's where the problem is, because you can't reach the bottom of the pocket when you brush and floss, and if it gets so deep, the hygienist, she can't get down there cause you're not going to let reach down there and get it.

Host: how do i know i have pockets, or that something that i only find out from you as well?

Dr. starr: well, it's not necessarily me.

It could be the general dentist population or it could be a periodontist.

And what we usually do is probe, and what we do is establish a baseline as where your bone levels are throughout your mouth.

And then we've got a good idea what we're dealing with and we can monitor how well as you get improved or you can go the other way.

Host: now, i would assume you're taking it out by an x-ray or that metal thing that goes down as they measure, they count out numbers.

Dr. starr: well, we like to use the general plastic one host: haha!

Dr. starr: but yeah, yes.

We measure the numbers.

And we consider zero to three millimeters deep pockets healthy.

We consider four to nine millimeter pockets diseased.

It's a function of how deep everybody can clean.

Host: all right.

Now i do very quickly when you do that deep clean that's from the dentist or the periodonitst or your hygienist, can that fix part of the gum disease?

Dr. starr: if you remove the source of the infection, then yes!

It's like you got a sticker in your hand, you've got a red ring around it, you pull the sticker out the ring goes away, right?

Host: so not all is lost?

Dr. starr: no host: but we need to see you.

Dr. starr: yeah, absolutely.

Everyone needs to see me!

Host: haha!

That's my way to end, my friend!

If you want to find out more information, there it all is on the screen.

Dr. starr from golden triangle periodontal center.

He's the man to see to get your smile back in place.

Back after this short break everyone!

You're watching "on the beat."