|
Gum therapy treats bad breath, swollen and/or bleeding gums and a bad taste in the mouth that is caused by bacterial infection.
There are three broad classes of periodontal (gum) therapy for treatment of gum disease:
1. Dental cleaning (Scaling)
2. Root planning
3. Periodontal (gum) surgery
A dental cleaning is what one typically receives at a six-month check-up. It is appropriate for those who maintain excellent home oral hygiene and have minimal gum pocket depths around their teeth.
Root planing & scaling RP&S is usually recommended when one needs more work than a typical cleaning. This may be due to lack of adequate home oral hygiene, high sugar diet, deeper gum pocket depths around teeth or more extensive dental work that might inhibit access for a regular cleaning. Root planing & scaling is usually divided into two to four office visits. Local anaesthesia is frequently used since this cleaning will attempt to get to the full depth of the deeper gum pockets. This procedure usually involves minimal pain and one should expect to resume social and professional activities later that same night and certainly the next day. Most people feel a tremendous difference in how much cleaner their mouth feels and how much fresher is their breath. The benefit can be quite profound and immediate.
Three to six months after completing the RP&S we would perform a re-evaluation examination and would usually recommend one of the following:
1) Go back to regular cleanings but at a frequency of every three, not every six months
2) Repeat the root planing & scaling, or
3) Periodontal surgery is indicated for either the whole mouth or just refractory sections.
Gum surgery is similar to that performed during root planing & scaling except that we actually cut the gum and moves it out of the way during the procedure. This allows us direct vision to really see the problem and direct mechanical access to attempt to clean and repair the diseased tissue.
1) Normal, Healthy
Gingiva (Gums) - Healthy gums and bone
anchor teeth firmly in place.
2) Gingivitis -
Plague and its byproducts irritate the gums, making
them tender, inflamed and likely to bleed.
3) Periodontitis
- unremoved, plague hardens into calculus(tartar).
As plague and calculus continue to build up the gum
begin to recede from the teeth and pockets form
between the teeth and gums.
4) Advance Periodontitis
- The gums recede farther destroying more bone and
the periodontal ligament. Teeth-even healthy teeth -
may become loose and need to be extracted.
|