How Do You Treat Gum Disease?

With so many different types of treatments for gum disease, it can sometimes be hard to find the right one that works for you.

Non-surgical periodontal treatments include scaling and root planning followed by adjunctive therapy. Root planning is a careful cleaning of the root surfaces to remove plaque and tartar from deep pockets, but it also smoothes the tooth root to remove bacteria. This procedure is given as needed accordingly to your specific case.

Periodontal surgery is necessary when the tissue around your teeth is unhealthy and cannot be repaired with non-surgical treatments. Pocket reduction procedure is a procedure where your periodontist folds back the gum tissue and removes the infected bacteria before replacing the tissue. This procedure allows the gum tissue to reattach to healthy bone. When the bone supporting your teeth has been destroyed, it is recommended to undergo a procedure that can reverse some of the damage by regenerating lost bone and tissue, also known as a regenerative procedure. Soft tissue grafts can be used to cover roots where excessive gingival recession is apparent. This procedure is where your periodontist takes gum tissue from your palate to cover the exposed roots; it can be done to only one tooth or even the gum line to help with sensitivity. But to use this procedure, the patient first needs to have their condition controlled.

There are also a few cosmetic procedures to treat the aftereffects of gum disease. The most popular are dental implants, which are a permanent tooth replacement options. Soft tissue grafts are also used along with crown lengthening and ridge augmentation. Crown lengthening is used when gums have covered too much of your teeth, making your teeth appear short. This procedure takes the excess gum and bone tissue and reshapes it to expose more of your natural tooth. Ridge augmentation is used when a patient loses one or more teeth causing an indention in the gum line and the jawbone recedes where the teeth use to be. With an unnatural looking indention, where food particles could sneak inside, it is recommended for a cosmetic dentist to go in and fill these.