Re: CP and tooth loss - anne

[Guest guest]

anne,

Oh yes, the fear of infections is always on my mind, and that of my GI doctor.

He understands my diabetes much more knowledgeably than either the

dentist or dental surgeon. The dentist who originally found the problems was

quite put out that my GI doctor intervened and insisted on the extractions

being done in the hospital. He told me that he felt he could have " handled it

just fine " in his own office, without all the extra paperwork, inconvenience and

expense of having to bring in a dental surgeon and go into the hospital. And

for one tooth, yes, he did just fine, when I had to have one taken out three

weeks ago because it was sore and starting to get infected. But this is ALL

the remaining upper teeth in my mouth and there could be extensive delays if

the sinus' are involved, and much more of a " production " that just the one

tooth. Besides, he must know little or nothing about diabetes, because when I

told him that I kept my BG generally around 90-100, he said, " well, I don't

know what that means, but you just can't have it too low when we do the

extractions " . The more I think about it now, the more relieved I am that he's

NOT doing the work! If he doesn't even know where my blood glucose

SHOULD be, what would he do if I did hypo during the procedure? Scary!!

My research has mentioned that all the stomach acids brought up by vomiting

in CP does damage the teeth and gums, and that they deteriorate quicker

because of this. I only had about a year of sporadic vomiting problems early

in my CP, but haven't had any problems with this for the past three years,

except for twice when I had acute attacks. I'm much lucker than most in that

respect. The reason my teeth and gums seem to have deteriorated this past

year is primarily due to bone loss....xrays show that the bone has receded

severely on both sides of my upper mouth. All this damage was very sudden,

it was only 8 months ago that my dentist first noticed some minor problems,

and then suddenly this summer, wham!.....four front teeth came loose all

within a couple weeks time. A trip to the dentist showed that those weren't the

only ones loose, there were molars on both sides that were also loose. The

dentist told me that once the deterioration starts, it's not uncommon for the

changes to be very quick and unexpected.

I still haven't had the time to research this any further. I was so busy

planning

and preparing for my daughter's wedding in September that when it first

happened during the summer, I just put everything on the back burner,

intending to research more after the wedding. And I've been so busy since

then with other CP related activities that I haven't gotten any further than to

make arrangements to have the dentures done before one of these teeth fall

out in my soup. I'm afraid to wait until after the Christmas holidays, and hope

that by doing it the week after Thanksgiving I'll be back to normal by

Christmas.

They have the operating room reserved for me at noon on Thursday, Dec. 3. I

have to go to the dental surgeon's for a physical on Nov. 30th. This will be

the

third physical I've had in the last two months.....it's ridiculous! Then I have

a

pre-admissions testing at the hospital on the 1st which could take 3-4 hours.

I asked the hospital representative why it would take that long, and she said

that they had to reserve enough time in case the dental surgeon orders an

EKG, chest x-ray or other radiology work prior to the surgery. That's totally

ridiculous if he does, since my GI just had me have all those tests and more

just three weeks ago in preparation for the dental work! He wanted me to

have all those exams done so that he would know my present physical status

before he wrote his letter of recommendation for the surgery. If I have to do

it

all over again I'm going to be really ticked. I plan to take all the results of

all

these tests to the dental surgeon on Monday and tell him I see no reason in

the world why they would need to be repeated, when they were just done

three-four weeks ago!

It seems like every doctor I see wants to milk my insurance company for

everything they can. I am going to see if the dental surgeon's fees can be

processed through my major medical insurer. I called my BC/BS case worker

a couple of weeks ago to tell her what was going on, but now that I find that

we've already exceeded the early insured amount of $1,000 through our

dental plan, I feel that the medical plan should pick it up. It's not as though

it's

elective surgery, and I'm already saving them a lot of expense by not

choosing to go the periodontal route with excessive reconstruction.

Hopefully, we'll get this all straightened out and have some help with the cost

of it all.

My husband won't have any medical insurance once he retires, so we're

trying to get as many of my problems taken care of now while he's still

covered. When the union made all their foolish concessions to the airline this

year, trying to help with the airline's bankruptcy, they gave up the employee's

retirement medical insurance benefits! I'm sure you can understand how

horrified and shocked we were to hear this. It's made our future look pretty

bleak.

Forgive me, I didn't mean to get rambling on about this. I'm sure it will be

easier for your daughter if she does wait to do her dental repairs until after

the

holidays. If you'd like, I'll update you on my progress and all the details of

what happens, etc., after the surgery. Maybe if she knows what it's like and

what to expect afterward it will be easier for her to accept. Please let's keep

in

touch, and let me know if there's anything more I can do to help.

With love, hope and prayers,

Heidi

Heidi H. Griffeth

South Carolina Rep.

SE Regional Rep., PAI

Note: All comment or advice is based on personal experience or opinion, and

should not be substituted for consultation with a medical professional.

anne wrote:

> Heidi,As far as I know the main concern for dental work on people with

diabetes is infection and healing issues. My daughter's docs and dentists

also think she should have the surgery in a hospital setting as opposed to a

dentist's office.I would like to try to have med insurance help pay for this,but

who knows???

(snip)I have a nephew with cp who is experiancing the exact same problems

as my daughter-rapid deterioration all of a sudden.He's only 19.I wonder if

it's

meds or from all the vomiting(stomach acid).