How Is Gum Disease Treated? Gum disease is a common but serious oral health condition. Fortunately, gum disease is both preventable and may be curable. However, the type of treatments necessary to overcome your gum disease will vary depending on how advanced your case is. No matter how minor or advanced your gum disease is, our professionals at Willamette Valley Periodontics can help with both surgical and non-surgical interventions.What Are the Non-Invasive Treatment Options?When it comes to non-surgical treatments of gum disease, there are two primary methods utilized. These procedures are root planing and scaling, which are always performed together because this provides you with the best results. Root planing and scaling is a tried-and-true treatment option that has been around for years. When performing this treatment, our team will need to start with the scaling process. Scaling can be completed at the end of an oral exam and cleaning or as a stand-alone visit. Scaling is done with a metal, handheld tool. Scaling simply involves scraping away the hardened tartar off of the surface of your teeth. After scaling is done, our professional will then plane the roots of your teeth with the same metal tool. Planing is done by reaching below the surface of your gum line and gently smoothing out the roots of each tooth. By removing the built-up debris and creating a smooth surface between your gums and roots, our professionals are facilitating healing and preventing your gum disease from worsening. What Are the Advanced Treatment Options?If your gum disease is already considered severe, then our team will likely need to use surgical interventions. Your gum disease progression is gauged by measuring the depth of the pockets between your teeth and gums. If these pockets are between 1 to 3mm, then no gum disease is present. However, pocket depth in excess of 5mm is considered advanced and means that your pockets are too deep for traditional root planing. Usually, the first surgical procedure implemented by our team is pocket reduction surgery. Of course, every case is different, and some patients will require that we start with other procedures. The goal of pocket reduction surgery is to decrease the depth of your pockets so that our team can use regular scaling and planing techniques. This is done by making an incision in your gum line, scaling your teeth, and then stitching the incision closed to reduce the pocket size. Other surgical interventions are more focused on the repair of damaged tissue, rather than simply treating the cause of your gum disease. One such procedure is a gingivectomy or gum graft. A gingivectomy is used to remove severely infected gum tissue to curb the spread of infection. If new tissue is being added, then it is considered a gum graft. Bone grafts may also be necessary when treating your gum disease. A bone graft involves the placement of small bone fragments directly onto your jawbone. The purpose of this procedure is to strengthen your jaw, which could have been weakened due to gum disease. Even if you have suffered from gum disease for a long time, there is still hope. Come see our professionals at Willamette Valley Periodontics and get started on your path to a healthier, disease free smile. You can schedule your appointment by calling our office at (971) 261-1926. |
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