A Rod continued…..

ARod’s announcement that he has gum disease is commendable. But will it cause us to act upon it and do something about it?!

I like how former MLB baseball player, Alex Rodriguez, came out at the end of May and announced he has gum disease. Unfortunately, his announcement became newsworthy for one day. No one had a discussion about it after that. It probably left some people confused. In fact, the interviewers had some questions about it but then led the discussion into another former baseball player, Tony Gwynn’s, use of smokeless tobacco. A separate issue. Why was this?

It may have been because of Alex’s diagnosis given by his dentist, a “mild gum disease.” As mentioned in my last blog, we don’t have this diagnosis. It’s like telling a patient don’t worry you’ve got mild cancer or mild diabetes. But if an appropriate diagnosis of stage 1 periodontitis was given, would it be more effective for the patient to act upon it?

It’s a question that we as practitioners need to ask ourselves. But it may be more complicated than we think. This is because of our fear for negative online reviews and its damaging effect to our business today. If I gave patients their real diagnosis and informed them about how damaging it is, would they end up blowing up on me and become angry for being so negative?

The other issue is the patient’s understanding of gum disease. How serious is it? Is it serious enough that a person like Alex Rodriguez would need to take action? One would say, “I’ve had it for a while now, it’s not affecting me so why should I pay attention to it now?” This is a question that comes up quite often.

The seriousness of the disease should be taken note of. Even if gum disease does not cause death, its infectious inflammatory risk factor can contribute to it. If, not taken care of, it can lead to pain and tooth loss. But unlike a cavity, it doesn’t produce immediate pain and can be lived with for years. People might think they can live with the tooth loss, maybe get an implant. But if you lose a tooth, there’s a domino effect that occurs where it puts more stress on the other teeth so that they might be lost as a result. There’s even a recent study showing that it may lead to brain shrinkage. So why would it be ok to live with gum disease?

There really is a no-win situation in living with gum disease. It’s a disease. Unfortunately, given how prevalent it is today, we don’t treat it as one. This is why an honest and open discussion about gum disease between a dentist/hygienist and the patient must be done. It should not be a personal issue for the dentist and hygienist themselves for they should be examined for the disease too. Would you want to be treated by someone who is diagnosed with gum disease?