Everything About Gum Treatment: A Periodontist Explains Periodontitis Treatment Costs, Process, Pain, Methods, and Dental Out-of-Pocket Insurance

Hello.

I’m Baek Won-seon, the chief director of Rev Dental Clinic at Sinsa Station.

� Today, as a periodontist, I’d like to explain the treatment that I specialized in.

That is... gum treatment.

Chronic periodontitis, gum disease, pyorrhea, gum treatment, gum surgery, gum regeneration treatment, and so on...

These are things many of you have probably heard of and experienced before — common, but difficult treatments.

� The photos may be a bit... uncomfortable, so please be prepared before looking at them...! (Honestly, I don’t find them very shocking..)

Chronic periodontitis, pyorrhea, and loose teeth

� If you search on Google, you’ll find pretty illustrations like these.

They are a schematic diagram of the progression of chronic periodontitis.

� The causes of tooth pain are broadly divided into two types.

Pain caused by decay in the hard tissue of the tooth,

and pain caused by tartar accumulating around the tooth, making the soft tissue swell and bleed, and further, by the bone around the tooth dissolving away.

� When a tooth decays, treatments such as cavity treatment, root canal treatment, crown treatment, and so on are needed — treatments we can see with our eyes.

When the gums become unhealthy, treatments such as gum treatment, gum surgery, and alveolar bone regeneration treatment, which many people are familiar with, become necessary.

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Source: North Raleigh Periodontics

� Cavities are intuitive, so they’re not hard to understand. They’re also treatments many people receive.

In academic terms, “chronic periodontitis,” and what the general public calls “pyorrhea,” is a chronic inflammatory disease caused by tartar that has not been removed and has accumulated around the teeth, as shown in the image above.

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Source: BDG Dental Services

� At first, only symptoms such as red, swollen gums and bleeding appear.

This is called gingivitis, and it can be resolved with scaling and simple gum treatment, and it is reversible.

� If this tartar gradually hardens, becomes more solid, and increases in amount, it becomes periodontitis, and at that point more active intervention such as gum treatment requiring anesthesia or gum surgery is needed.

� And unfortunately, if the timing is missed, the teeth start to loosen... the pain becomes severe, and the teeth may need to be extracted.

Diagnosis of Chronic Periodontitis

� To make a diagnosis, an X-ray is absolutely necessary. (Covered by health insurance!)

Of course, this is to check the height of the alveolar bone.

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Source: ASK A DENTIST

� Normally, the height of the alveolar bone should be maintained up to the boundary between the crown and root of the tooth, commonly called the CEJ, but when the alveolar bone is lost due to chronic periodontitis, this height is lost, and most of it can be detected on a dental panoramic X-ray.

� And if alveolar bone loss becomes more severe, pathological migration of the teeth can also be confirmed.

The timing and type of gum treatment are determined through clinical experience, radiographic images, and visual examination.

� A dentist who has been professionally trained in these processes is a periodontist. When I obtained the qualification, there were only about 300 people... so there really aren’t many of us.. haha

It has been available since doctors from the Class of 1998... if you look carefully, there will probably be one in your neighborhood...

Treatment of Chronic Periodontitis

Tartar removal - non-surgical gum treatment - surgical gum treatment - regenerative treatment - biofilm removal

Source: Revise Dental

When you encounter this much tartar, the first thing to do is tartar removal = scaling.

More precisely, it is the procedure of removing tartar above the visible gum line.

� Usually, this is done on the first day you visit the dental clinic, and on a weekday basis,

basic examination + panoramic X-ray + scaling = about 30,000 won.

Of course, this is because it is covered by health insurance. South Korea is a country that is good for living healthily.

� At this point, if not only visible hard tartar is removed but biofilm is also removed, the treatment becomes more complete.

To explain biofilm simply, it is like the limescale or grime found in a bathroom — a place where bacteria live and which is surprisingly difficult to remove.

� The device designed to effectively remove biofilm is AIRFLOW, and it is supplied from Switzerland.

It is also widely used for maintaining gum health in laminate patients.

(Use of this product is not covered by health insurance. That is why most dental clinics do not have it.)

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� Unfortunately, tartar is usually not only in places that are easy to remove like this.

If you pull out a tooth and look at it... tartar has grown and grown, extending along the surface of the tooth root..

It gradually works its way into places that are really hard to remove, like an ingrown toenail.

� To remove this tartar, “non-surgical gum treatment” is performed.

� Simply put, it means performing deeper scaling under anesthesia.

If you insert the instrument further between the gums and the tooth and thoroughly remove the tartar, the gums will become healthy.

� This is the gum treatment that is performed in most dental clinics (more precisely, by doctors who are not periodontists).

It is a very good treatment. Once the tartar is gone, the bacteria disappear and the gums return to a healthy state.

� The cost of non-surgical gum treatment is roughly around 100,000 won if all teeth are treated.

(This does not cost more when performed by a periodontist.)

� Because hidden tartar must be removed like a blind person feeling an elephant’s leg, the skill level varies greatly from one provider to another.

This is usually referred to in dentistry as being technique-sensitive. The results differ from person to person.......

It’s similar to how a specialist in restorative dentistry is good at root canal treatment, and a specialist in prosthodontics is good at dentures. The one who has removed more tartar does it better..

(To be honest, tartar is very hard, it hurts your hands to remove, and it doesn’t pay much money, so unless you have a sense of mission, nobody does it properly haha.. 인정?)

� I’m really sorry for photos like this, but (that’s why I warned you earlier..! ㅠㅠ) there are people in whom it’s impossible to predict how far the tartar extends.

It may be like this throughout the mouth, or only in the molars...

� For such patients, surgical gum treatment must be performed in order to treat the gums carefully in every corner.

The cost of surgical gum treatment, if we’re talking about doing the whole mouth, is roughly 300,000 to 500,000 won.

After surgical gum treatment, stitches are placed, so the number of visits increases as well.

***You may have noticed the advantages of surgical gum treatment, but

1. Because the tartar is visible, it is easier to remove and the quality of treatment improves.

2. Because access with instruments is allowed from multiple angles, the quality of treatment improves.

3. If necessary, gum bone regeneration treatment (such as bone grafting) can also be attempted.

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� Then what is the alluring gum bone regeneration treatment, just from the name?

Do you know the company Straumann? It has appeared many times in my posts as well...

� It is the process of placing a product called EMDOGAIN, made by Straumann, the world’s No. 1 implant company from Switzerland, into areas where the gum bone has been destroyed!..

The principle is that this allows a certain amount of gum bone regeneration.

� This EMDOGAIN reportedly contains a substance extracted from the tooth germs of pigs, and it is a material that makes some regeneration of gum bone destroyed by chronic periodontitis — which was said to be absolutely impossible — possible.

� Because its effectiveness has been proven, it is covered by health insurance.

The cost of gum bone regeneration treatment using EMDOGAIN is, as far as I know, about 500,000 to 700,000 won when applied to the entire mouth.

Pain from Chronic Periodontitis

I think almost everyone has had scaling at least once. It is covered by health insurance once a year, and it can be handled for around 20,000 won.

Even if instruments are inserted deeper to remove tartar, the pain is not as severe as people might think.....!

� Surprisingly, taking antibiotics and painkillers for about three days is enough to return to daily life.

I had an impacted wisdom tooth removed myself, and I think it hurt for about a week... Compared to that, this treatment causes much less pain.

Gum Treatment and Dental Out-of-Pocket Insurance

In fact, this is also the reason I wrote this post.

As a periodontist, I’m proud of maintaining healthy gums... so I really have no reason to file dental out-of-pocket insurance claims.... but sometimes patients ask whether they can claim them!

� So while researching, I came across this. I referred to a KB Insurance post.

� After looking at posts and articles by various insurance agents,

it seems that people with what we commonly call first-generation indemnity insurance cannot file dental out-of-pocket claims!

However, it is possible for dental treatment at a general hospital. Probably dental treatment received inside a place like OO General Hospital is covered...

� For those who signed up afterward, all dental treatments that are covered by health insurance can apparently be claimed through dental out-of-pocket insurance.

(This is basically the core of today’s post, right? haha. The dental clinic that has filed many insurance claims is also better at the process, lol.)

� Apparently, all of this is possible.... These were things I hadn’t thought much about while running a dental clinic...

Probably, people usually never miss claims for things like manual therapy, ophthalmology treatment, and other treatments where tens or hundreds of thousands of won can be claimed by insurance...

Relatively smaller dental expenses seem to be neglected quite often. Honestly, if scaling only costs 20,000 won, many people probably just skip it because it’s annoying...?

� Still, as someone who runs a dental clinic, I was impressed by how many items at our clinic — such as health checkup fees, scaling, gum treatment, root canal treatment, wisdom tooth extraction, and so on — can be claimed through out-of-pocket insurance.

� Also, the treatments I often perform as a periodontist,

such as tartar removal, non-surgical gum treatment, surgical gum treatment, and gum bone regeneration treatment, are all... eligible for out-of-pocket insurance claims!

(For people who need a lot of gum treatment, this could amount to several hundred thousand won.)

� People who end up needing gum treatment often have many of the following factors.

They say the following three have the greatest impact.

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1. Smoking habit

2. Uncontrolled diabetes

3. Poor oral hygiene habits

� If you have even one of these three, and you have symptoms such as gum pain, swelling, bleeding, or a feeling that the teeth are loose, please visit a clinic with a periodontist as soon as possible and receive treatment for gum disease!

� It is a disease that can be overlooked more easily than you might think, and if a tooth is extracted, you will ultimately need implant treatment, so with the mindset of taking care of your own health...! ^^

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Rev Dental Clinic will always be a place that understands the feelings of patients receiving treatment and thinks first for the convenience of others :)

I’m Baek Won-seon, the chief director of Rev Dental Clinic at Sinsa Station.

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This has been Baek’s dental study.

Thank you.

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