Teeth and dentistry is a very specialized subset of medicine and healthcare.  It just relates to the teeth and oral care of a person, a rather small part of the body.  Many times dentists are dealing in just millimeters.

This is why patients, who most people do not like going to the dentist, rely on a dentist and healthcare provider to treat them carefully and with the proper care and attention necessary of a skilled and trained dentist.  This type of healthcare is so specialized that even other doctors won’t give medical advice on it—how should patients be responsible?!

This is why periodontal disease and a failure to diagnose it is very important and usually medical malpractice.

Periodontal disease is like gingivitis, but gingivitis that is not treated and left to fester, grow, and become more damaging.  This means that periodontal disease can cause irreversible damage.  It can even cause infections of the blood which can damage the heart.  Yes—the heart damaged by the teeth!

But periodontal disease can be addressed by a dentist who is trained to recognize its presence.  In fact, periodontal disease is OBVIOUS to a dentist.  Whereas it is less obvious to a non-dentist, and it is nearly invisible to a patient.  This is because the “pockets” which show evidence of periodontal disease are measured in MILLIMETERS!  Yes, millimeters!  How is a patient supposed to see that?

That is because a dentist should!  Treatment for periodontal disease can be as simple as MOUTHWASH!  But the result of not treating periodontal disease can be loss of teeth, jaw bone, and even wrongful death when the heart is damaged.