My periodontist has advised me to have surgery on 3 back teeth although one of my premolars is likely not to respond even to this. Has anyone else had teeth splinted like this in surgery? It will take 1.5 hours and then I have to return to have stitches removed. Also I have to see a hygienist a month later. I'm worried about pain of surgery and the time this surgery will take. What depresses me most is that even after all the surgery (cost £700) I will still lose a front premolar. Has anyone had this problem with such a loose tooth due to gum disease? I've always been to a dentist for regular check-ups and I try to clean well, but I never seem to have cleaned well enough.
Thanks for any reassurance anyone may have.

I have had surgery on all 4 quads of my mouth and my husband had just a few teeth done. several of my teeth were loose and they did tighten up with the surgery but not altogether.
We had different reactions...it bothered my husband more than it bothered me but with numbing, you will not feel anything while they are doing it. AFter the dentist will give you pain killers. the biggest problem i found was holding my mouth open for a long time. It is really not at all bad, much better than you are probably expecting it to be. Anyway, after the surgery the dentist will have been able to clean all the plaque and infection out from under your gums and that will give your gums a chance to heal closer to the tooth and close the pockets you have. This should make your teeth more stable. But you really have to wait a few months before you can really see the results. My dentist does not advise disturbing the area for 6 months while healing is taking place.
good luck, i am sure you will find it not as bad as you expect.

Many thanks, lateeth, for your reassuring reply. When your dentist advised not disturbing the area for 6 months, what exactly does that mean. No food on that side? 6 months sounds a long time. Did you have a lot of swelling after? Was having the stitches out painful?

I had two quads done about two months ago. I found the surgery annoying and tiring, but I had no real pain at all, even after the anesthesia wore off. A technician removed the stitches, and that was nothing. The post-operative instructions were simple, and I was declared healed and finished in a few weeks. I was frightened before I had this done, but now I'll not be worried about surgery on the other side of my mouth when the time comes.

I had flap surgery on the upper right quadrant, costing $1300. It has anaesthesia, so you don't feel any pain during the surgery. The dr. put dressing on after the surgery. After three days, I took the dressing off. The stitches are desolvable, and no need to be taken out. But when I was taking the dressing out, there were some stitches coming out, so I cut it off.

But one thing I did not expect was after the surgery, there appear three interdental black triangles above the gum line. I just asked for less root exposure, but did not expect that.

The periodontist suggest I have the orthodontic treatment first, then after 2 years, come back for the bone graft in one of the teeth (the second molar on the upper right side, costing $1300 for opening the gum + $1000 for bone graft). The orthodontic treatment might make one of the triangles smaller since the tooth is now slanted. I don't know if after the future bone graft, the black triangle would be enlarged again.

Many thanks to all those who kindly have reassured me. I have my flap surgery on 26 September. What I dread also, is that even after this surgery, the periodontist will find I need some more expensive work done, eg bone graft. I feel my dentist should have referred me years ago to a periodontist. Then maybe I wouldn't be needing so much work now. Do others feel they've neglected their tooth-cleaning and so deserve this? Or do you think these things have a genetic or hormonal side? My dentist makes me feel guilty for not cleaning well enough, but I feel I tried as much as I could, given that I'm a busy working parent of young children.

helpfulbear, this smacked me out of nowhere when i got it and i had beengoing to the dentist regularly with cleanings every 6 months. more and better cleaning could have helped but if you were going to the dentist, he or she should have noticed something sooner. i found many dentists, esp older ones do not refer for this treatment but it seems to be getting more well known in the dental community.
as to your "do not disturb" question. my perio did not want to disturb the healing for 6 months. I could do or eat whatever i wanted but she felt the under the gums part which was healing and tightening should not be disturbed by probing or cleanings for 6 months. i only had to trust in her that the healing was going on. i had very deep pockets tho so maybe with lesser pockets it is not so important.
About the triangles, at least in my case, this was a result of removing the tissue between the teeth so black shows through which was blocked by tissue before. It does not show too much to others on me, but it does look ugly when i look in the mirror. It is a small price to pay i feel to help to keep plaque from building up under the gums and causing me to need to have my teeth pulled inthe future. If this is the cause in your case, i guess the question yu need to ask yourself is how important it is to you to keep your teeth vs replacing them with implants or dentures later down the road if you cannot keep them free of infection.

Lateeth, thank you for your helpful info. Yes, my dentist is coming up to retirement-age, so maybe does not refer so readily for this treatment. I have deep pockets on some of the upper left, 9mm in fact. Yes, this is well worth it, as you say, so as to try my best to keep these teeth. I self-referred to a periodontist and then the dentist agreed it was a good idea. I only heard of this treatment thanks to my mother, who's Australian, where people are referred to a periodontist more often than here (UK), I think.