Diagnosed With Periodontal Disease at 19
Ever since the Covid-19 Lockdown I, like most people have been dealing with depression since, this is where i found smoking weed. My last dentist visit was more than 3 years ago and i believe they found cavities we never scheduled to have fixed, but at least at THAT point there wasn't even gingivitis present. I never flossed AT ALL and I knew brushing your teeth was mandatory so i would try do so here and there, but getting out of bed was enough of a chore for me as it is that it was never much of a thought in my mind. I knew i didn't have the healthiest mouth and up until 2 years ago besides plaque on my teeth occasionally everything seemed fine and i was happy with my smile. But then thats where i started to notice a little decay start forming around my front lateral incisors 2 years ago that then started to move inward, but besides cosmetic caries. The teeth never gave me any problems or toothaches, and when the plaque would buildup from infrequent brushing, it was harder to notice how much larger they caries had grown over time. So by the time i noticed how large they were, i had figured that maybe it was partially smoke tartar stuck on my teeth from years of smoking? Anyways, it had gotten to the point where I had been fed up of having cavities in my front visible teeth and i was no longer happy in my smile so i wanted to go get them filled, that was early March of this year. So we book an appointment at Sage Dental and they’re not able to see me until April 16, thats fine. I try improving my dental hygiene in the coming month, nothing hurts while brushing and when April finally rolls around, I go in for a simple routine cleaning and im feeling good. But all of sudden i'm sitting in the chair for 30+ minutes with people coming in and out doing different things to examine my teeth, taking x-rays, but prepping nothing for any type of cleaning. It’s been so long I don’t remember much of what the people coming and going said, i believe they did do a perio charting but nothing was released to me as of now, and even back then random numbers don’t mean much when not explained properly to the patient y’know? The one thing i do remember for certain though was a lady coming in and telling me i had periodontal disease which at the time basically went in one ear and out the other. Another lady came in, told me they would have to extract what i later found out was tooth #10 and would put a bridge in its place. But instead of actually TELLING me this, she just points to a tooth in my mouth w/o showing me exactly (which is what i mean by later found out), she then grabs a sheet and points me to a QR code pulling up a video of the bridge procedure. And besides the main factor of them being unable to run my secondary insurance, me realizing in order to place a traditional bridge on tooth #10 they would have to shave down one of my front two teeth, I got scared me, backed out of the entire treatment and tried to find somewhere else. Needless to say, over the past 4 months life has gotten even worse. Besides the same smoking habits, i was brushing more often than i was the past 2 years. it wasn’t good hygiene, but it was better. And finding time to call into a dentist office became even harder. Until last early last week, I finally get around to being able to get on top of my dental health. By the time i‘m finally free to call, its a Friday afternoon which makes most if not every dental office closed. And with how my brain works, I became my own dentist for the weekend. I became obsessed. I started looking up my treatment plan so i can have a baseline for what to expect when i go back in. And so i start researching periodontal disease and what it actually was, and when i realized It broke me. I had always been the perfect kid in a medical sense, no allergies, no broken bones, perfect eye-site, healthy immune system. And I dont know how to process it, Im 20 now and It feels like this diagnosis has fast-forwarded my life to where im 65 and it feels like all my youthful exuberance has just left my soul. These past 5 days I’ve forced myself have outstanding dental hygiene. Brushing morning and night, and flossing every tooth with the C hug method. Along with trying to stop smoking as much, my nerves have been so shot it feels as if i‘m unable to live anymore. I not even 21 yet, I figured I would at least be able to life a college kid lifestyle until society needed me to grow up, I never knew the thing that would suck the joy out of my life and wake my up to reality was gum disease. It’s just been a roller coaster of emotion. I feel ashamed, i feel alone and embarrassed. And everybody around me acts like they know how it feels. But they don’t. This is my last stop before my visit on this coming Monday to get my mouth fixed. When i called this previous Monday, I had explained it all to her and she had gave me hope that results may be diff because every hygienist has their own opinion. But thats not enough, Im almost 100% certain that I got it. And I would much rather hear it from a professional. But im at the point right now where the emotions i’m feeling from this stuff are completely controlling my life. I just need some type of good news in the bad. Obviously a part of me is still holding out that i only have severe gingivitis and its still removable. But I doubt it. Any positive news will help me right now guys.
