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Periodontal disease treatment for earlier stages of gum diseases such as gingivitis will often entail improvement on your current oral hygiene practices.  This means, if you aren’t a big fan of flossing and gargling after brushing your teeth, it may be time that you should be incorporating these to your current oral hygiene rituals.  Your dentist may also prescribe medicated mouthwash or toothpaste to help reverse the infection.  However, for severe cases, a different treatment may be prescribed by your dentist.  These treatment options are often intrusive, depending on the severity of your periodontal disease.  Take a look at these treatment options.

The first option for periodontal disease treatment is root scaling and planing.  This treatment option is a non-surgical procedure which involves removing the deposits of plaque and tartar on your teeth and beneath the gum line.  This is usually done when tartar and plaque deposits are very hard to remove with professional cleaning or brushing and flossing.  The dentist first scrapes off the tartar and plaque buildup on teeth and beneath the gum line using ultrasonic tools or hand instruments.  Once the tartar and plaque deposits are removed, the dentist then proceeds with cleaning and polishing teeth.  This treatment is only used for mild cases of periodontitis.

The second treatment option for moderate to severe gum diseases such as periodontitis is gingival flap surgery.  This is often used when root scaling and planing does not resolve the gum infection.  In this procedure, the dentist or specialist will pull back a section of your gums to remove any plaque or tartar buildup that has reached the roots of your teeth.   In some cases, the dentist or dental surgeon will try to fix damaged bone cavity to prevent reinfection.  Once the surgery is done, the flap is then sewn and smoothed back to close down pockets between gum line and teeth.

Bone and gum grafting is often performed in more severe cases such as advanced periodontitis which is characterized by receding gum line, giving teeth an elongated look.  In gum or soft tissue grafting, the dental surgeon takes healthy gums from the roof of your mouth to be stitched to your exposed teeth roots.  On the other hand, bone grafting involves getting grafts from the patient’s own bones, a cow or a cadaver’s bone or synthetic bones made of glass.  These bone grafts are then placed on the damaged but cleaned (via scaling and planing) bone cavity before a protective barrier is placed between the grafted bone cavity and the gums.  Usually, it will take about six to nine months before the grafted bone or soft tissue will begin to grow and cover the damaged teeth roots.