Maintaining good dental hygiene through regular professional cleanings and oral examinations enhances the possibility of keeping your natural teeth for life. Good hygiene involves caring for not only your teeth but also the structures that surround them, such as the gums and teeth-supporting bones.
Gum disease is a bacterial infection that can threaten the supporting tissues surrounding your teeth. We look for gum disease at Georgian Mall Family Dental as part of our regular examination. If we see signs of trouble, we’ll suggest gum therapy and cleaning.
Known in dentistry as periodontal therapy, our objective is to restore your diseased gums and surrounding tissues to health as quickly as possible. Otherwise, the disease can spread from the gums to the supporting bone. Periodontal disease can even lead to a loss of teeth in more severe cases. When diagnosing gum disease, we will consider a variety of therapies ranging from deep cleaning to remove the plaque and tartar trapped beneath the gum life, to periodontal antibiotics and in the more extreme cases surgery to repair lost gum and bone tissue.
Stages of Gum Disease
There are two stages of gum disease:
- The first stage is gingivitis. Most patients do not experience any symptoms when they initially come down with gingivitis, and when symptoms do occur it’s usually confined to the gum area. Gingivitis is simply the result of plaque buildup and poor dental hygiene. During this stage, mild treatment methods such as a thorough cleaning (scaling) is all that’s required to stop the gingivitis from developing any further.
- In more severe cases, gum disease can result in periodontitis. This usually happens when the gingivitis is not treated early enough and the plaque spreads below the gumline. The spreading plaque creates toxins that inflame and eventually attack the gums and bone. In addition, pockets can form within the gums that are susceptible to even greater infection.
If you suspect something is wrong with your gums, don’t wait. Early detection can prevent periodontitis and the need for more invasive treatment methods.
Gum Treatment Options
At Georgian Mall Family Dental, we offer a variety of treatment options to correct periodontal issues. Our overall goal is to support your teeth, gums and bone, and prevent tooth loss.
Scaling and Root Planning
This deep-cleaning technique is the ideal way to control and correct gum disease. We remove the plaque and tartar from beneath the gum tissues using hand scalers and ultrasonic equipment.
Periodontal Antibiotics
If you have deep pockets around your teeth, periodontal antibiotics may be the best option for curing this infection. We carefully place the antibiotics in your gum pockets. These antibiotics fix themselves to the tissue lining the pocket, and through time-release technology, the antibiotics slowly kill the bacteria. These antibiotics are steadily released for 21 days to ensure all bacteria is destroyed.
Gum grafting
In more severe cases of periodontal disease, it might be necessary to replace lost gum tissue so that the teeth roots remain protected. A gum grafting procedure is performed by taking gum tissue from a healthy area in the mouth and moving it to where it’s needed.