Periodontal Disease Treatment in St. Catharines, ON
If you don’t keep good dental hygiene habits, then decay-causing bacteria can get a foothold into your teeth, resulting in periodontal disease. This disease, known as periodontitis, can cause gums to recede and form pockets around teeth, which can eventually lead to tooth loss. Fortunately, with the right periodontal treatment, a dentist can save your teeth.
Types of Periodontal Treatments
Periodontal disease has four stages:
- Gingivitis is the beginning of periodontitis.
- Minor periodontal disease
- Moderate periodontal disease
- Advanced periodontal disease is the final stage of periodontitis.
The first signs of the disease include swollen gums that look bright red and bleed when brushing or flossing your teeth. Then, the gums recede and form pockets that can eventually lead to losing teeth. Fortunately, our dentists at Girardi Dental can begin treating your teeth and gums at the first signs of periodontal disease and save them.
Teeth Cleanings for Early Disease Stages
When there are signs of gingivitis and early stage periodontitis, our periodontist near you in St. Catharines, ON can use teeth cleanings to treat the disease. During the gingivitis stage, better dental habits, routine dental visits, and cleanings can easily reverse it. Your dentist may advise you to use a fluoride mouth rinse or fluoride treatments to reinforce your efforts at home.
Scaling and Root Planing
As the disease advances, our dentists will do scaling and root planing to get rid of bacteria and tartar on your teeth. Tartar is impossible to brush away, so our dentists at Girardi Dental will use their instruments, including dental lasers, to remove it. They will pay special attention to any gum pockets that form to keep them bacteria-free.
Tissue Regeneration
Our dentists in St. Catharines, ON will use the latest advances in technology to help regenerate the gums around the teeth so that the teeth don’t loosen and need removal. These techniques can also help to regrow bone.
If you notice bleeding gums as you’re brushing your teeth, contact and book a appointment with our periodontist at Girardi Dental in St. Catharines, ON right away for periodontal treatment.
Periodontal Treatment FAQs
Periodontal treatment can involve several different things depending on the shape of the patient's gums and the severity of gum disease. At its most basic, periodontal disease involves cleaning and using an oral rinse to kill germs and bacteria. As the damage and gum disease progresses, the treatments get more extensive to halt the gum disease and repair the damage done.
At the most advanced stages, periodontal treatment may even involve surgery. At this point, it can be difficult to reverse all the damage done.
Yes, if the periodontal disease is caught early enough, it is entirely possible to reverse the course of the disease and correct the damage. The worse the disease gets and the more damage done, the harder it is for the dentist to repair the damage and stop the periodontal disease.
Even if the dentist fixes your periodontal disease, it's important to remember that it can always come back if you don't practice good oral hygiene and keep your teeth and gums clean of debris and bacteria.
Periodontal treatment can take as little as half an hour and up to several hours, depending on the scope of the treatment. If the dentist has to perform a deep cleaning, this can take 1 ½ to 2 hours and surgery to repair gum damage from advanced disease can take even longer.
It can take even longer if the teeth have been damaged or there is bone erosion because of gum disease.
No. While the dentist can stop the progression of gum disease and even fix some of the damage, a patient is always at risk of gum disease returning after their periodontal treatment without proper care.
Once you receive periodontal treatment, the dentist will send you home with specific instructions for properly cleaning your teeth and gums to prevent the periodontal disease from returning.
Yes. The most common treatment for moderate to advanced gum disease is a procedure known as deep cleaning (or scaling and root planing). This procedure will stop the progression of gum disease and repair some of the damage that the disease did. So long as this is followed with proper oral hygiene, gum disease should not return.
