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Jayster
Incredible Member (2000+ posts)
2021 Posts
Gratitude: 159
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 Posted - 04/12/2007 : 22:27:02
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Do we all know that schiohrenics are prone to early tooth loss? Actually, I have great teeth, but advanced gum disease.
The bone that the teeth live in has been disappearing for a long time.
Recently, I got an infection under a molar in the cavity where bone used to be. The pain made a believer out of me!
The temporary fix was to put some tetracycline on the infection, and sure enough, it healed right up.
Today the periodontist scaled under the gum line on one quadrant of my mouth; also, on the molar that is tooth number 30, he removed part of my gum so that in the future I can keep that pocket underneath the tooth clean. I went home with a special toothbrush for getting that pocket.
Right now, there is a bandaid on my gum. I feel like I have an itch that I cannot scratch right now. Today's fifty minutes in the chair cost $909.53, which I put on a credit card.
They will want some work to be done in the other four quadrants, but possibly less depth and less cost than I did today.
Because he was only doing the one quadrant today, he only put novacaine in that one quadrant. Perhaps because the work was proceeding faster than anticipated, he started scaling under the gums of some teeth adjacent to the quadrant worked. He kept asking me if it was painful. Because I kept telling him the pain was tolerable, I got some free work on a couple or three teeth.
Cath was in the room with me, and that made four. Dr. Levy, his assistant Lisa, and J &C. Cath started asking him questions about implants, and he was in his glory showing us pictures of work he had done, and pictures of work that other people had had done elsewhere and then come to him for correction of bad work.
It is good of me to do this self care.
Jayster  |
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| Jayster
Incredible Member (2000+ posts)
2021 Posts
Gratitude: 159
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Posted - 04/26/2007 : 23:13:21
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I had post op follow up today.
The periodontist was with me for a little while, then it was the dental assistant's turn to do some teaching with me. I was too anxious to understand what she was teaching. I just kept insisting that I wanted her to tell how to clean the hole under tooth 30, and she kept telling me she couldn't see any hole. She did give a mirror to look for myself, but all I could see was blood deep in that part of my mouth.
Oh well.
Jayster
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| Anamater
Super Member (250+ posts)
284 Posts
Gratitude: 123
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Posted - 04/27/2007 : 07:53:13
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LAst year I finally got some work done on my teeth, becasue I finally got insurance that made it affordable. I got 3 wisdom teeth out (i still need to get the fourth removed) and one molar. They were all in really bad shape, because the wisdom teeth were growing right up around the main nerve that runs through my jaw. I was getting such constant infections that i am now allergic to two kinds of antibiotic.
I plan on getting the other wisdom tooth, and another molar out this year, as well as getting a zillion cavities filled. I kind of wonder, though, if bad teeth and scizophrenia don't go together becasue of the circumstances. You know, like, you won't go to a dentist becasue you think they are putting transmitters in your teeth, or you don't take good care of them becasue of the ups and downs of schizoaffective dissorder? Sure, I have a weird shaped bite plate, but how much would that REALLY have wrecked my teeth by itself?
Art. Like morality, consists of drawing a line. |
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| Jayster
Incredible Member (2000+ posts)
2021 Posts
Gratitude: 159
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Posted - 05/09/2007 : 19:32:34
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Thank you for your reply, Anamater.
I hope I'm not recreating the wheel; schizophrenics are known for their unusual palate, that is.
Through the miracle of copy and paste:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070314082032.htm
Dental abnormalities associated with schizophrenia
14 March 2007 U of Maryland
Research at the University of Maryland, Baltimore quantifies, for the first time, how schizophrenia is apparently associated with a broader hard palate and abnormalities in the teeth.
The work, a collaboration of dental and medical researchers published in the latest issue of the journal Schizophrenia Research, adds important support to an understanding of schizophrenia as not just a disease of the mind, but as a complex developmental disorder that includes a psychological component.
Recent research had pointed out a link between wide palates and the incidence of schizophrenia. This study, though, was the first to use "blind" measurements of schizophrenic and control patients to find a statistically significant link. The research also found more abnormalities in the teeth and jaws of schizophrenic patients. Gary Hack, DDS, associate professor in the University of Maryland Dental School, made casts of schizophrenic patients' mouths, then had other researchers measure those casts, along with those from "control" patients.
Hack, who worked on the research with former School of Medicine Professor Brian Kirkpatrick, MD, MSPH, says the link between schizophrenia and palate width and teeth and jaw problems may be a tool in the diagnosis and early treatment of the disease. And, pointing to a body of research showing the value of early treatment of schizophrenia, Hack adds, "The sooner you begin treating these patients who later develop psychosis, the better the long-term outcome."
Hack is eager to see how further studies might link physiological abnormalities with schizophrenia. The findings on palate and teeth abnormalities, he says, "might be a part of the puzzle."
Other studies continue to shape scientists' understanding of the complex physiological nature of schizophrenia. Kirkpatrick, now vice chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior at the Medical College of Georgia, is researching whether the high rate of diabetes in schizophrenic patients is due not to their medication, as has been suspected, but to an existing risk factor inherent in the disease.
"We need to be sensitive to the fact that these patients also have many medical problems related to this disease," says Kirkpatrick. "There are other things going on that we need to pay attention to."
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