Your dentist or dental hygienist used the word. Periodontitis. Maybe with a stage number next to it. And from the moment you left the clinic, or maybe now, late at night, you have probably been Googling it.
An honest explanation: what the diagnosis means, what treatment involves, what it costs and what you can do at home yourself this week.
It is a lot to take in during one appointment. First, two questions you have probably already searched for: answered honestly.
"Can I still be cured?"
The short answer: no. Periodontitis is not cured, but stabilized. And that is an important difference.
What it means in practice: the bacterial inflammation that breaks down the bone around your teeth can be brought to a halt. The bleeding can stop. The gums can recover. But the jawbone that has already disappeared does not come back.
In other words: everything you still have now can be preserved. From today, the difference between "stopping where it is" and "further loss" is a matter of taking action.
"Is it reversible?"
Partly, yes. And that is good news.
Bleeding and inflamed gums are reversible. With the right care, the inflammation disappears, the tissue heals back toward healthy, and pockets can become smaller.
What does not return: jawbone that has already broken down. That remains gone.
So the relevant question is not "can this go back?" but "what has not been lost yet?". And the earlier the diagnosis, the larger that part is.
What comes next, in terms of treatment plan, costs and what a periodontitis pathway looks like in practice, is not a small thing. Here is an honest explanation, in detail.
The stages: where you are now
Periodontitis is internationally divided into four stages, based on how much jawbone has been lost around a tooth:
- Stage 1: up to 15% jawbone loss. Bleeding on probing, small pockets. Clinically manageable.
- Stage 2: 15 to 33%. Deeper pockets, permanent tissue loss. Treatable, but the damage already present remains.
- Stage 3: 33 to 50%. Significant jawbone loss, sometimes first tooth mobility, exposed root surfaces.
- Stage 4: more than 50%. Teeth become loose or have already fallen out. Replacement with implants or a denture.
Many people are only diagnosed in stage 3, when symptoms are already present. If you hear it in stage 1 or 2, you are hearing it at a favorable moment: there is still full control. Regardless of stage: progression can be stopped from today.
The treatment pathway and the costs
The standard periodontitis pathway in the Netherlands is called the initial pathway: four one-hour sessions, spread over three months. Each session is a deep cleaning below the gumline (scaling and root planing) by a dental hygienist or periodontologist.
Work is often done under anesthesia. Patients describe sensitive spots afterwards, light swelling and regularly bruised gums for a few days. Honestly: it is not a pleasant pathway.
A full initial pathway comes to about €1,600 in practice (Independer.nl, 2026 + KNMT fees). After that comes aftercare, every three months, lifelong, at €115 to €200 per consult.
- Initial pathway: about €1,600
- Aftercare per quarter: €115–€200 per consult
- Implant, if a tooth eventually cannot be saved: about €2,100 per element
- KNMT example Max in his most expensive year: €3,461.97
Dental care for adults is almost entirely outside basic insurance. Supplementary insurance usually reimburses €250 to €1,500 per year. In practice, that buys you at most one treatment pathway. The rest you pay yourself.
"Unfortunately, the lost supporting tissue recovers little or not at all."
— Mondzorg Minke
That is exactly why early intervention makes the difference. The period in which the inflammation can still decrease and the tissue can recover does not stay open forever.
What you do at home between those appointments determines whether it works in the long term. Below: what 200 patients did in the largest European periodontitis study of January 2026.
What 200 patients did at home
In the largest European study on periodontitis care to date, HOPE-CP, n=200, the results were published in the Journal of Periodontology in January 2026. The study tested a Finnish medical device that patients can use at home alongside their standard periodontal treatment: CE-marked Class IIa, photodynamic therapy at home in ten minutes.
It is called Lumoral.
The Lumorinse rinse contains a light-sensitive molecule that attaches to bacteria in the biofilm: the place below the gumline where toothbrush, floss and mouthwash physically cannot reach. The mouthpiece illuminates your oral cavity with blue (405 nm) and red (810 nm) light for ten minutes. The light activates the molecule, and it attacks the bacteria below the gumline.
Ten minutes. On the couch, while you watch an episode. That is it.
In HOPE-CP, 200 patients with stage I to III periodontitis were randomly divided into two groups. One half received standard care: professional cleaning, sonic toothbrush, instructions. The other half received the same care plus daily Lumoral at home.
After six months:
- Twice as many patients in the Lumoral group reached clinically healthy gums (BOP below 10%, the European definition of healthy): 51% versus 23%.
- One and a half times as many patients achieved good plaque control (plaque index below 10%): 63% versus 38%.
- 85% of Lumoral users were still using it daily after six months.
Published in the Journal of Periodontology, peer-reviewed by the American Academy of Periodontology (DOI: 10.1002/jper.70082).
Frequently asked questions
What it costs
Lumoral costs €249. One time. You pay for the device once and that is it.
Compared with the list from the previous section:
- €249 · Lumoral
- €1,600 · initial pathway
- €115–€200 · aftercare per quarter
- €2,100 · implant per tooth
- €3,461.97 · Max in his most expensive year
Lumoral is the smallest item on this whole list.
30 days to experience it
Does it not work for you? Then return it within 30 days. You get your money back, minus return shipping costs. We recommend bringing it to your next appointment and asking your practitioner whether it fits your plan.
— Lumoral clinical editorial team · in collaboration with independent periodontologists