Radio Spot – Perio Protect for gum disease
Ben Heighes: Thanks for joining us, AM1440 KUHL, the information station. It is Thursday and time once again for Dr. Dino’s Cool Truths About the Tooth. And today we’re talking about somewhat of a new treatment, maybe, that folks have not heard about before. It is called Perio Protect and I do want to welcome back to the program Dr.Dino Bonyadii. doctor, thanks for joining us today.
Dr Dino Bonyadi: Thank you, Ben. Good morning to you and our audience.
Ben Heighes: So, tell me about this somewhat new procedure.
Dr Dino Bonyadi: Yes, I’m very excited to introduce Perio Protect to our audience and to my patients. This is fairly a new treatment method that is designed to help patients who have gum disease, periodontal disease. And they’ve been recommended to have surgery or deep scaling, deep cleaning mostly people call it.
Ben Heighes: So how does this procedure work?
Dr Dino Bonyadi: Yeah. Perio Protect, what we do is we make special trays that have gaskets in them that seal once you wear them on your teeth. It’s kind of like boxing guards. Once you wear them, you form a seal around your gums and teeth and what we do is we introduce a 1.7% hydrogen peroxide gel inside the tray. It comes in a little tube and you put a little dab of the paste in there, and you wear the tray for about 15 minutes once a day, twice a day, three times a day, depending on what your dentist prescribes.
Ben Heighes: So, is this something that you do in the dental office or at home?
Dr Dino Bonyadi: No, this is something that you do at home. The way we do the treatment is patient comes, it’s very simple. It’s non-invasive. A patient comes in, we take impressions of their teeth. Now, we can treat just the upper teeth, we can treat lower teeth. We take impressions of them; we send it to a special lab, and they make the trays. Once the trays come back, patient comes in, we try the trays in, we put the gel in there, we have the patient wear it just to make sure that we do have a good seal. Now, once we ensure all of that is correct, then we send the patient home with the gel and the trays and the patient does this at home at their convenience.
Ben Heighes: We’re speaking to Dr.Dino Bonyadii. Dr. Dino’s Cool Truths About the Tooth, and we are talking about Perio Protect. So, doctor, what does this do that maybe flossing or brushing doesn’t do?
Dr Dino Bonyadi: That’s a very good question. Of course, this doesn’t replace flossing and brushing. This is in addition to that. What this does is, studies have found that bacteria, as they build in the mouth, they form a gelatinous coat over them. And unless that gelatinous coat is broken, there is no way that any even antibiotics or mouthwashes or toothpaste can penetrate it. They have found that hydrogen peroxide is actually one of the only chemicals that penetrates through that gel, therefore allowing the cells to be exposed and killed.
Ben Heighes: And is this for adults or for children or both?
Dr Dino Bonyadi: I would not recommend it for children, of course, because most children would not have gum disease, periodontal disease. Now, if they do, yes. It possibly can be indicated for that. It’s mainly for adults and teenagers. I think this is going to become a way of the future, where this will be prescribed for most patients who come in for gum treatment, have some sort of periodontal disease. Most people, I would say about a good 75, 80% of people have periodontal disease. How would you know you have periodontal disease? If your gums are bleeding when you bite into an apple. If you’re flossing, your gums bleed. If you’re brushing, your gums bleed. If you’re using a toothpick around in your tooth and it bleeds. These are all signs of periodontal disease. Now, if you’re brushing or flossing and your gums bleed, that means you are pretty far down the line and you need to have that definitely looked at and taken care of.
Ben Heighes: Again, it’s called Perio Protect and doctor, what about insurance? Does insurance cover this?
Dr Dino Bonyadi: You can call your insurance company yourself and find out if they do cover that. Some insurance companies do cover it, some don’t. They may cover it partially. It will all depend on what kind of a plan you have, and how up to date your insurance company is as far as all these new techniques and technologies come in. If anybody is not sure, what they can do is call my office, give their insurance information and my staff will be more than happy at no obligation to check for them.
Ben Heighes: Wonderful. Anything thing else that people need to know about Perio Protect?
Dr Dino Bonyadi: I just … I am very excited. I’m one of the first offices to offer this technique and treatment on the central coast.
Ben Heighes: And doctor, are there any side effects to this treatment?
Dr Dino Bonyadi: Actually, there are two side effects to this which are very positive. One of them is patients have reported getting whiter teeth, so actually it whitens the patient’s teeth. And the other is fresh breath.
Ben Heighes: Two really good side effects.
Dr Dino Bonyadi: Oh yeah. They’re very good side effects. Also, one more point is that usually with bacteria, nowadays we worry about bacteria forming resistance to antibiotics. So traditionally we were treating periodontal disease by putting little antibiotic chips inside the gum by the tooth. But with hydrogen peroxide, studies have shown that bacteria do not at all build resistance to it. So no, there’s nothing to lose except things to gain, which is technique.
Ben Heighes: So again, that’s Perio Protect, and if people need more information, they can get a hold of your office.
Dr Dino Bonyadi: Yes. They can call in at 925-7343.
Ben Heighes: They can also go on your website.
Dr Dino Bonyadi: Drdinob.com.
Ben Heighes: And if they’ve got an issue, or a question or concern, they can go ahead and send you an email.
Dr Dino Bonyadi: Yes. They can through my website. On the right-hand side on the homepage there’s a little envelope symbol. Just click on that, type in your question, send it to us and we’ll address it.
Ben Heighes: And we can like you on Facebook.
Dr Dino Bonyadi: Oh, please do. Thank you.
Ben Heighes: All right. Dr. Dino’s Cool Truths About the Truth with Dr.Dino Bonyadii. doctor, we’ll see you next time.
Dr Dino Bonyadi: Thank you, Ben. Have a wonderful day.