The person who said that one can say about any specialty and how it works with every other specialty - I agree that this is true, but I see perio to be the one most involved. It's like a house that cannot stand without its foundation. The periodontum is the foundation of the tooth - anything you want to invest into the tooth, you want to make sure that it's foundation is strong enough, otherwise the work invested into the tooth is for naught.
It seems that some of the people writing these posts have not seen how general dentists completely overlook the perio in their practice. I've been seeing way too many cases of crowns going on mobile teeth with furcation involvement or using these teeth as abutments for RPDs or FPDs. What should I blame this type of dentistry on? It seems that the GP just doesn't care, so I assume he didn't care in dental school when he was taught that it is wrong. Regarding to the GPs who graduated on top of the class, I'm sure there are plenty; I was specifically referring to the GPs on bottom of class who didn't care in dental school and don't care when they're in practice. Although, it's generalization, obviously it's not true for everyone.
It terms perio being an inflammatory disease associated with others - for all those who not absolutely nothing about periodontal disease, perhaps you should read the periodontal literature. THe person who discussed adverse pregnancy outcomes and how that is not clear - you're right it's not clear, but all the studies do show that by treating periodontal disease with scaling/root planing, adverse pregnancy outcomes decrease. I'm wondering whether this is coincidence.
For all those who don't believe that medical insurances will cover perio procedures - they've already started doing so, just give it more time until they pick up more of the procedures.
In terms of the person who discussed how implant oriented perio is - it's true, but one's job is to save teeth, not replace them. Only when they're not salavageable, then we resort to implants. Implants are great, but teeth are better. GPs placing them is that they just want a piece of the pie. Due to this, one of the upcoming popular areas that will arise and will be treated by periodontists, is peri-implantitis. It's beginning to rise and the more unqualified GPs start placing implants, the more work for the periodontist. Anyway, enough of this. I was only trying to give a vague perpective of perio and where its heading, and about the types of programs that are out there.
I think you get the point.