Dental | Dental Articles

By: Evan Langsted

Gum disease (periodontitis) affects more people than heart disease, strokes, Alzheimer’s and cancer, combined. Gum disease is one of the leading causes of tooth loss in adults. Gum disease is caused by bacteria in the form of plaque that accumulates on your teeth. This plaque combined with food debris lodged between your teeth can cause infection to spread.

Scaling and Root Planing

The treatment of gum disease is often achieved through scaling and root planing, which is cleaning of the root surface to remove plaque and tartar from deep periodontal pockets. After scaling and root planning, many patients do not need further treatment. However, they will need ongoing maintenance treatments to sustain healthy teeth and gums.

Laser Use in Gum Therapy

The latest conservative gum therapy uses a laser. The use of lasers in addition to scaling and root planing improves the effectiveness of this procedure. The laser gently disinfects and removes diseased tissue from around the tooth and gum. This new laser therapy is gentle, less painful, there is less bleeding, and swelling and a quicker recovery time. Laser therapy is more conservative, more effective and a more comfortable option for most cases of gum disease. Surgery may still be used for severely advanced gum disease.

In the case of those with gum disease where scaling, root planing and laser therapy are not enough, surgery may be an option needed to restore gum health. Periodontal surgery is needed when your dentist determines your gum tissue cannot be repaired with non-surgical treatments. There are four types of surgical procedures:

* Pocket reduction procedure
* Regenerative procedure
* Crown lengthening
* Soft tissue grafts

Surgery may be needed to stop the progression of severely advance gum disease or to replace bone lost to the disease.
About the Author:

If you live in the Calgary, Alberta area and are interested in learning more about gum disease and therapies utilized to treat it, please visit the website of the Aesthetic Dental Studio today to learn all about this disease and the options open to you for treatments and therapies.

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