I've been dealing with periodontal problems for more than 20 years now, and my experience is that, as long as I can do the necessary preventative maintenance (brushing, flossing, etc) on my teeth, everything is stable and my prognosis is good.

However, I do have a particular problem that can only be handled by a good periodontist, and so far, I haven't been able to find one (including the 5 years I lived in Bangkok). For those who might be interested (or not!), I have a molar in the lower jaw in which the surrounding bone has receded below the underside of the tooth, which is called a furcation. Essentially, there's a little cave under my tooth, between the roots, which I can't keep clean with the usual brushes, etc. So of course, bacteria invade the furcation, and continue to do their damage.

I've mentioned this to several periodontists, but no one seems interested in cleaning under the tooth (I assume because it's a lot more difficult than a normal cleaning). Also, if the bacterial infection persists, I will certainly lose the molar - and the periodontists profit a lot more from a tooth implant procedure than they do from a perio cleaning procedure - so I can't help but wonder if they're just waiting for nature to take its course so they can earn bigger bucks.

So far, I've been to Elite Smile, Grace Dental, and Empress Dental, with pretty much the same results. My experience is that the periodontists in Thailand seem to be only focused on corrective procedures, and don't much care about preventive maintenance.

I had a very good periodontist in the West who pointed out this tooth problem to me, several years ago, but I haven't yet found a periodontist in Thailand who seems to care. Has anyone had a similarly complicated dental problem that was handled appropriately by a good periodontist here in Chiang Mai?

http://www.ssdentalclinicchiangmai.com/ Professor Supatra.........

I used the dental team at RAM hospital over a 12 month period 2 years back. Sure, it cost more than the 1-man teams, but they were able to call on the various specialists on the dental ward.

I'm sure they could handle most problems, Dr Veeraporn qualified in the USA, speaks excellent English, and we used dental surgeons, X-ray guys, root canal Dr and so on. I don't wish to repeat this treatment, but they sure were good.

A root canal treatment was about 30% of the cost in Australia, heaven knows what it would cost in the elsewhere. My sister had one done at the same time in Oz and the cost was around AU$1400.00.

I have had the same problem with all of my molars for many years now. My periodontist cleans out the "caves" for me at every checkup and a few years ago actually operated on the gum on 2 teeth to cut it back far enough to allow me to clean inside myself. This sounds fairly horrific but I actually went to sleep during the procedure which was totally painless. I also have an antiseptic mouthwash which is sprayed around and under the gum area with a hypodermic syringe and blunt needle to keep the area clean. I have been having this treatment for around 10 years now and still have all my teeth so it is working fairly well.

I can't help with a periodontist in CM as I have been using the BKK hospital in Hat Yai ( not a lot of help as far as you are concerned) but the treatment should certainly be available in CM, perhaps you could try the BKK hospital there?

Go to the CMU Dental School, most of their instructors also practice at clinics.

http://www.bigsmile-chiangmai.com/

See Dr. Supachi himself. I had a similar problem and we worked out a foix that is still good and going great today.

Many thanks to all the replies! Now I'm armed with several options - and I've learned about the possibility of using a blunt syringe to distribute antiseptic mouthwash, which I might ask my new, chosen, periodontist about.