This is a question that people with gum disease should be asking.
It is my opinion that if you have gum disease, you should be visiting a periodontist.
Periodontists have additional training that is specialized on gum disease and gum health. I believe it is two years of extra school to become a periodontist as opposed to a dentist. In addition, the periodontist’s practice if focused on gum health and disease.
If you had heart problems would you wanted to be cared for by a general practitioner or a cardiologist?
Well, when it comes to gum disease, who do you think is the more qualified professional?
I didn’t know the difference before either. But I know this: my dentist did not help me with gum disease at all. In fact, I really believe she let my gum disease get progressively worse over a period of years rather than refer me out to a periodontist or even explain how bad my problems were.
For all of those years, I thought it was normal to have some bleeding when my teeth were cleaned. It is not at all normal and shouldn’t be happening. My dentist never explained this to me. Nor did she explain how serious gum disease can be. She also did not explain to me what I could do to defeat gum disease.
I was already on the path to recovery, finding my own solutions, when I decided to go to a periodontist. I’m glad I did. I can tell you that the care from a periodontist, as far as gum health goes, was far superior to that of my dentist. I learned additional things from my periodontist about keeping my gums healthy that my general dentist never told and never seemed to care about.
So, therefore, it is my opinion that if you have gum disease at all, you should be under the care of a periodontist.
It takes both professional care and home care to keep your gums healthy and well, in my opinion. As far as the professional side goes, choose a periodontist.
That is my opinion and I’m sticking with it. I talk more about this topic in my book.
David Snape
Author: What You Should Know about Gum Disease