telemachus18

Hi everyone,
I need some advice concerning my gum disease. I am a 29 year old male and have had gum disease for about 9 to 10 years. I am healthy, average height/weight, no history of heart disease (I was adopted so I'm not sure completely if there was heart disease history in my family). I also exercise regularly, eat healthy, do not smoke and drink very occassionally.

Here is my medical history...I got braces when I was 19 years old. The braces (orthodontic treatment) moved my teeth severely and corrected my bite. After the orthodontic treatment (which lasted 4 yeaars!) some of my teeth have a severe angle because the orthodontist corrected my bite. The orthodontist corrected my bite from an underbite (mal-occlusion) to a regular overbite.

THis is about the time when my gum disease developed. About halfway thru my orthodontic treatment, my dentist told me that I had developed pockets in my gums and that I had gum disease. I had to have some scaling done in order to remove the excess plaque. The dentist told me that I had to get about 3 units of scaling done on the teeth every 4 months or so because of the pockets had developed around the gums. He said that my gum disease might improve after the braces came off.

So a few years later, i had my braces taken off, and I still had pockets in my gums. These are fairly deep (about 6 mm everywhere) but they have stayed stable in size. What was Even worse, the dentist disclosed that I had had some bone loss in the teeth.

The condition (bone loss and gum pockets) has stayed the same for the last 5 or 6 years. But it is a serious hassle to get teeth scaling done every 3 or 4 months. The scaling is painful because the dental hygeniest must reach deep into the gums to clean the excess calculus/plaque build-up. And I try to avoid sweets but my teeth still gets buildup a few months after the last cleaning. I also use state of the art teethbrushes like the Rotadent.
I brush twice a day, and floss every night. I am very meticulous with my oral hygiene yet I still have deep (6 milimeter pockets) everywhere in my mouth.


I am very unhappy with my condition because I am convinced that I developed the gum disease from the braces. The orthodontic treatment left my teeth in a structurally weakened positioned that (many teeth used to be at an upright 90 degree angle but are now angled more like at 45 degrees). The gums do not seal off the bacteria as well as before.

From the time I was born until I was 19 years old, I had really healthy teeth. I seldom had cavities and I did not have gum disease or any problems. It was only when I got the braces when (at 19 years of age) that the gum disease developed.

I have told my current dentist about this and told him that I think I should reverse the orthodontic treatment that I had and go back to the previous bite position of my teeth.
My dentist advised against this because he says that this will not improve the gum disease. I am also very upset towards my orthodontist because of my condition. I have done searches on the net but there are no results showing a link between orthodontic treatment and gum disease.

Should I try to reverse the orthodontic treatment and try to set my teeth back at their previous bite position? Will this help my problem? No health professional believes that reversing my ortho treatment will fix my periodontal problem. But the fact remains that my teeth and gums were perfectly healthy before I got braces.

I would appreciate any advice from anyone who is in a similar predicament or any advice from any dentist or periodontist or orthodontist. If you have any info or advice, please post a reply here or email me directly at [ please carefully review the posting rules - no emails ]

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