In truth, your gums are as crucial to good oral health as your teeth. These tissues support your pearly whites and provide a foundation for tooth roots. Still, they could develop gum disease if you aren’t careful. Your mouth would then be in serious trouble. Luckily, our office can provide you with top-tier gum disease treatment! This option can manage your infection and help your mouth recover. For more details on it, keep reading or book a visit today.
At its core, gum disease is a bacterial infection of your gum tissue. It’s often caused by plaque buildup – an issue related to poor oral care. That said, the condition does have many notable risk factors. Such things include genes, tobacco use, hormone changes, etc.
In general, there are two stages of gum disease. The first is gingivitis, which amounts to strong inflammation of the gums. Form number two is periodontitis – a full-blown infection that destroys gum and jaw tissue. Oral care can reverse gingivitis signs, but periodontitis can only be managed to prevent worse effects.
As you might expect, gum disease symptoms can vary over time. Which ones you have will depend on the severity of your problem.
Take gingivitis, for example. Its most common signs are:
Meanwhile, periodontitis has its own unique symptoms. These include:
During your consultation, our dentists will conduct an oral exam. Doing so confirms the exact state of your gums. Once they’ve assessed the tissues, our team will discuss your treatment options with you.
Here at Nu Dental Eatontown, those options are:
Scaling and root planing is a multi-step deep cleaning below your gumline. In particular, it removes the plaque and tartar that inflame your gum tissue.
Overall, this treatment is done over two dental visits. The scaling portion eliminates plaque and tartar with our soft tissue laser. Later, the root planing smooths the surface of your tooth roots. This latter step ensures your gums healthily reattach to your teeth.
After scaling and root planing, a dentist can offer further help. One such method is antibiotic treatment. With it, they can further target the microbes that cause gum disease.
As a whole, our antibiotic option is quick and simple. Our dentists simply apply ARESTIN to your gum pockets. Over a few weeks, this medication will release into your gums and kill harmful microbes. The process will protect your mouth from future infection and speed up your healing. Once it's finished, you'll return to our office for a follow-up exam.
If your gum disease is pretty severe, we can perform osseous surgery. This treatment removes pockets around your teeth, stopping plaque and debris from hiding in them.
Just to be clear, osseous surgery can be invasive. It requires that we reshape the bone tissue near your teeth. Plus, we’ll need to place a bone graft to replace the removed tissue. Performing the treatment also involves opening the gums, putting them back, and suturing them closed.