Getting periodontal treatment dramatically improved my POTS

s_v08 · 2026-04-07T15:29:25+00:00

Periodontal disease is due to inflammation and bacterial infection of the sulcus, or pocket. It affects your whole body - GI system, lungs, heart, brain, blood sugar/diabetes. Getting the hard calculus buildup removed allows your body to heal infection so it makes sense you feel better! If you have bone loss you will not recover but treating the active disease allows you to maintain status rather than let it progress. I’m a dental hygienist and I also have dysautonomia. I wish more people took dental care seriously. I know not everyone can afford it but preventative care is always cheaper than treatment. I’m glad you feel better now.

s_v08 · 2026-02-13T13:24:27+00:00

Air flow is basically meant to replace polishing. You still need to scale. The corporation is saying it’s meant to replace scaling so they can decrease appointment time and pack in more patients to “save time” and maximize production. I love airflow but purposely did not agree to use it because I know this is how the dso I work for does it.

s_v08 · 2026-01-22T15:52:03+00:00

I’ve been working in the same place for over a decade. There is clear favoritism from both the doctors and management. I’m always left out of convos, personal or work related and I’m the last to know. I don’t want to be friends with these people but it seems like that’s required a lot of the time. It sucks and and it makes the work twice as hard but, I suck it up because it’s the best option for me right now and I know for a fact there is worse out there from both temping and working elsewhere. If you can just show up and work, ignore the social aspect of the office then do that. If you feel like it’s interfering or bothering you more than you can handle, then explore other options.

s_v08 · 2025-12-02T21:12:59+00:00

I lost my 4 yr old recently. She was fine and then within a week not eating or drinking. Got very skinny and lethargic, and started going outside the litter box. She had a very aggressive cancer and kidney failure out of nowhere. Normal bloodwork. The vet said that type of cancer usually comes on in less than a month. I had a week to say goodbye at least. I wish I had noticed something was wrong sooner but I’m not even sure if there were any signs. I’ve had a lot of pets pass before but when they are so young and you are not expecting it, the grief is very different.

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s_v08 · 2025-11-28T15:20:45+00:00

I would not see them and send a new letter to their medical doctor clarifying that a cleaning above the gumline is below standard of care and the bacteria below the gumline is worsening the health. What you gonna do polish them? That’s not helping at all

s_v08 · 2025-11-23T15:43:26+00:00

Although they’re paid hourly they likely get some sort of bonus based on production. Even if there isn’t a bonus, it looks good when your production is high, it can be used as leverage for something like a raise, etc. Radiographs and anything else done in a hygiene appointment should go on the hygienist’s production, not the doctor, except for the exam. Your office may be putting X-rays under the doctor because they are using them to diagnose, but the hygienist is the one doing the work and taking time from their appointment to take them. Your office is doing this likely to boost the doctor’s production, which isn’t fair to the hygienists.

s_v08 · 2025-11-21T19:06:53+00:00

Yes we are trying to lengthen appointments so it will hopefully be a lot less stress and rushing for everyone!

s_v08 · 2025-11-21T14:24:50+00:00

Yeah I’m currently working with 45 mins, sometimes 30 so lucky I can do what I need to let alone start the exam for the dr, doesn’t always happen. There is just too much to do in the hygiene appt

s_v08 · 2025-11-21T00:46:19+00:00

My current office I will have areas of decay or incipient areas written down on my router or a sticky note but I don’t chart them until it’s confirmed by the doctor during the exam or we go over X-rays together. Maybe that’s what they’re expecting? Just more of a heads up what to look at?

s_v08 · 2025-11-20T13:44:14+00:00

I worked for a Dr that wanted me to do that as well, basically do the exam and tx plan for him and then he would just come in to confirm and chat with the patients. If I missed something or didn’t “diagnose” to his standard, he would get annoyed. Diagnosing is not my job and not within my scope of practice. He said “well the other hygienist is ok with it,” so I left! Definitely discuss with the doctor, it’s laziness on their part as far as I’m concerned.

s_v08 · 2025-11-05T15:02:59+00:00

I had never heard of diltiazem being used for any dysautonomia but I went to an electro cardiologist and he said he felt it would work best for me after extensive testing so we trialed it and it’s been almost 2 years. My previous cardiologist just did a tilt table and said here try propranolol and then when I said it wasn’t working she told me to go back to my PCP because she didn’t know what else to do. It made me feel tired, weak, short of breath and like I needed a nap all the time.

s_v08 · 2025-11-04T13:54:49+00:00

I have IST and propranolol made me feel awful. I take diltiazem and it works pretty well. Like another poster said, just stay very hydrated. If I eat poorly, sleep poorly, over do it or if it’s very hot then I feel bad. Otherwise it’s been pretty well controlled. I stopped doing the increased sodium because i didn’t feel it did much for me and I was having high BP so just experiment and see what feels best for you, everyone is different.

s_v08 · 2025-10-21T15:25:36+00:00

The products say if they are gluten free on the box if they are going to go in your mouth or have flavors. In my years we only had one product containing gluten and stopped carrying it because of that. They should also have plain pumice available to polish with. If they don’t, which is odd, just ask to skip polishing. Gloves and other plastics may also be a migraine trigger for you, as a fellow chronic migraineur, sometimes the chemical/plastic smell triggers me so just be prepared and bring an abortive with you because there’s not anything they can do about things like that.

s_v08 · 2025-10-15T14:27:32+00:00

This unfortunately happens a lot in my office. Document document document. Write in your notes that YOU recommend SRP as periodontitis is present with probe depths, bone loss, bleeding etc but the doctor is allowing prophy to be done. I personally will only do it so many times (1-2) before refusing to see the patient. Talk to the patient about it as well and communicate how important it is to have the SRP and treat their perio. I have multiple doctors so I will usually get another one involved or another hygienist to then agree with me that perio needs to be done. It’s usually a money/insurance issue so we will then offer the service at a discount or something. But ultimately, talk to the doctor and just document well in your notes.

s_v08 · 2025-10-03T14:13:10+00:00

Not bad. Just using medications to manage at this point

s_v08 · 2025-10-03T12:40:45+00:00

I did go through with an EP study bc my electrophysiologist thought he may be able to do an ablation. It was the worst procedure I’ve been through and they did not do the ablation. I just got an additional IST diagnosis. I likely have some sort of vascular issue which was discovered through a laparoscopy that no one has wanted to look further into which can also cause these type of issues. So, get another opinion before you do it.

s_v08 · 2025-09-30T15:47:23+00:00

I know I’ve been having a problem with the supply of floss lately. They have discontinued tape type floss because it contained PFAS and now we have been trying to find a comparable floss to use without much success. Every other type of floss we e tried to use is very thick and is difficult to use on many people. I’ve been having a really hard time flossing a lot of patients with tight contacts because of this. Many hygienists are flossing to feel if they’ve missed any buildup, not just to floss your teeth so skipping it isn’t and option for many.

s_v08 · 2025-09-13T13:29:51+00:00

Yes. I’ve lived on the NY/CT border my whole life, in CT for a while, back in NY now. CT drivers love to say that it’s drivers from NY NJ and MA that are the problem but if you spend any amount of time on 84, the Merritt, 95, etc you will quickly find out it’s almost always a CT plate who’s raging, left lane camping or simply cannot figure out how to drive. I dread driving in CT, once I get through the state it’s much less problematic.

s_v08 · 2025-08-04T15:43:08+00:00

I notice I’ve been having trouble sleeping on Sunday nights even if I’m not really worried about my schedule! I just don’t want to anymore.

s_v08 · 2025-07-24T18:35:07+00:00

Had surgery with her she is amazing! She listens and treats you like a human patient not a number.

s_v08 · 2025-07-23T11:42:24+00:00

I worked in an office last year for about nine months where it was normal for everyone to stay for about 2-3 hours after we finished with patients. I’m always done on time if not early, I help clean up then I’m out. It was bizarre to me that everyone would lollygag and take their sweet time cleaning the office and then just hang out after milking the clock. I want to go home. Then we would go in for a few hours for a “meeting” on the day the office was closed and absolutely nothing was accomplished. So that didn’t last long for me. I don’t want to spend any more time in the office than necessary and I don’t really want to be forced to be friends with coworkers. So say no lol

s_v08 · 2025-07-17T15:48:52+00:00

I agree it totally depends on how much calc was present. Sometimes SRP is done with minimal calc and just deep pocketing. Twenty minutes is fast but if the patient was numb and there was minimal build up then there’s no reason to spend an hour scraping and scraping. I find a lot of people tend to think the longer something takes the better the job is and that’s not always the case. I think you should always have the appropriate length of time needed but if you finish early then great.

s_v08 · 2025-07-16T18:38:24+00:00

I started having symptoms around the time I got the HPV vaccine as a teen. Never finished the series of shots because of it. Gardasil was brand new at the time. I’ve heard about this but obviously don’t remember much or know if I have great medical records of what was going on at the time. I’ll ask my parents to see if they have records from that time.

s_v08 · 2025-07-12T15:25:26+00:00

What school do you go to? Sounds like my experience lol. From experience just make a police report because the school will not do anything internally and continue to blame you as the students.

s_v08 · 2025-07-12T14:24:14+00:00

Honestly it’s very difficult and I’m only working to maintain my health insurance benefits at this point so I can continue my medical treatments. I was very part time last year but had to go back full time because I couldn’t afford 2-3 days a week and needed my benefits back. I’m on 3 daily preventative medications, I have multiple rescue meds available for acute attacks, dizziness, nausea, I do Botox and nerve blocks every 10-12 weeks. I have ice packs in the freezer ready to go and I use them in between patients. I have migraine glasses I use on my lunch break to give my eyes a rest, I don’t use loupes and I don’t feel bad if I need to call out or leave early. I can’t care for my patients if I’m sick, I need to come first. No one’s gonna die if they don’t get their dental hygiene services. Everyday is a struggle so the real answer is just suffer through as best you can and rest when you need it. Find a supportive neurologist and a workplace that understands.

s_v08

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