Help for Advanced Gum Disease

Gum disease, also known as periodontitis, is a serious condition which can adversely affect your teeth. It destroys the soft tissue and bone which surround your teeth and can ultimately cause tooth loss, artery disease, stroke, and respiratory problems. Even though this condition is treatable, there are thousands of Americans who suffer from this disease. If you have an advanced case of gum disease, there are several options to treat it.

Non-Surgical

• Treating gum disease without surgery is by far the preferred method. Not only can surgery be expensive, it will often require several recovery days. If your case has not advanced to the point of surgery, consider one of these options

  Scaling involves using dental instruments or an ultrasonic device to remove any tartar or bacteria which may reside under the gums and on the surfaces of your teeth. This will keep the gums clean and hopefully start recovery. Your dentist may also try a procedure called root-planing. This procedure will smooth out the surfaces of the tooth roots, which will make it harder for bacteria to cling to the teeth. Finally, your dentist may prescribe some sort of topical or oral antibiotic. While the practice of using antibiotics has grown less over the years (due to the fear of creating a "super-bug") sometimes using an antibiotic is necessary in order to completely clear the bacteria away.

Surgical

• There are several surgical options which can take care of advanced gum disease. The first of these your doctor may try is flap surgery. This procedure requires your surgeon to make small cuts into the gum so that it can be lifted back. Once the tooth is more exposed, the surgeon will be able to more effectively scale and plane the damaged bone and tissue.

  Another surgical option is the use of a soft tissue graft. When you have an advanced case of gum disease, the gums shrink back which makes your teeth seem bigger. In order to fix this, the surgeon will remove some tissue from the roof of your mouth and will graft it onto the damaged area. This will cover any damaged gum tissue or roots in order to help repair of the damaged gums.

  Finally, you may need to have a guided tissue regeneration procedure. This requires the doctor to place a piece of fabric between the gum and the tooth. This fabric acts as a barrier between healing and diseased tissue. The object is to keep diseased tissue from entering a healing area and allows healthy bone to grow in its place.