(Periodontal Surgery vs Parkinson’s Disease Symptoms)

A while back I had to have some dental surgery – grafting surgery to help with receding gums. I was terribly worried about the procedure because of my problems with choking. It’s a Parkinson’s thing, we choke on food, water, pills, saliva, and air…pretty much everything! Regular teeth cleaning appointments can be stressful but my hygienist is awesome. We take breaks and she lets me hold the suction tool so I can use it at my discretion.

But this surgery would be different because I would be at a Periodontal clinic. Prior to meeting a potential periodontist, I was required to fill out pages and pages of health history. I outlined my relationship with Parkinson’s and shared my fear of choking. When I got to meet the periodontist and his assistant it was clear that they had never read my information. When I brought up the fear of choking, they laughed and said, “We’re not going to choke you!” Clearly I did not think they would try to kill me. I was very disappointed that they all neglected to read the information which I provided and that they belittled my fear. They got crossed off the list and I asked for the next referral.

Dr. Kobric and his team were fantastic. I still had to fill out a crazy amount of dental history forms, but they actually read the forms and reassured me that they would do everything they could to help me through the surgery.

The surgery was actually a breeze. I felt nothing due to successful freezing. They seated me as upright as possible to aleviate choking. I walked out feeling pretty good – even somewhat elated – glad that I had survived.

However, I had spent so much time worrying about the surgery, that I really didn’t consider the recovery period (or as I like to call it; HELL).

Freezing wore off and pain emerged in a variety of forms around my head, face, jaw, and mouth. I couldn’t eat anything solid and the dressing on the roof of my mouth (gum graft tissue comes from here) made it difficult to process any food or liquids. After a few days the dressing came out during a choking fit while drinking water. The pain at the site was horrible. Deep open wound = No food at all. Eventually I tolerated apple sauce and yogurt but I would have given anything just to eat a small cracker.

Then I was abruptly reminded that I also had to manage Parkinson’s disease. PD must have felt jealous because it had temporarily taken a back seat to my dental woes. But soon enough, my PD symptoms amped up in a flurry. The tremors in my arm, leg and jaw kicked in worse than normal. Lack of exercise brought extreme stiffness and rigidity which resulted in increased pain. Timing of meds got out of control as I tried to balance pain meds and anti-inflammatory meds alongside all the other meds that I take.

It was a shit show. I cannot think of a worse physical pain in my life. (actually childbirth might compete here, but the arrival of babies is a reward that dental surgery cannot compare!) I tell myself over and over that I will never do this again (similar thoughts arrived during childbirth but again…it’s a pain vs reward thing!).

It is now 8 months later and I’m still sure I would decline the procedure if it were to be suggested again. It just wasn’t worth it in my own personal cost/benefit analysis.

The lesson that I learned was that in the future, I would consider being more prepared for the recovery period of any sort of medical or dental procedure and not just the procedure itself.