Most people develop gum disease at some point in their lives. Different stages of gum disease affect people, and the stage, including factors such as treatments you’ve responded to in the past and overall health, determine the most appropriate treatment.
The treatments for gum disease at Thousand Smiles range from non-surgical treatments for bacterial growth control to surgery for restoring supportive tissues. Reach out to us for more information.
The non-surgical treatments for gum disease are as follows.
At your dental check-up, the hygienist or dentist will remove plaque and tartar on your tooth surface from above and below your gum line. Accumulated plaque on the teeth, which has hardened over time, is known as tartar.
If you notice the symptoms of gum disease, the dentist may recommend expert teeth cleaning more than two times a year. While dental cleaning isn’t an active treatment for gum disease, it is an essential preventive measure.
Root planing and scaling are non-surgical dental procedures performed under local anaesthetic. The deep-cleaning procedure requires the dentist to remove tartar and plaque from above and below your gum line and smooth rough areas on the teeth to get rid of bacteria, providing a clean surface for the gums to reattach to your teeth.
The periodontist or dentist can perform this procedure if there are calculus and plaques under your gums.
The surgical treatments for gum disease are
This procedure involves lifting back your gums to remove tartar. The dentist may smoothen irregular damaged bone surfaces to reduce areas bacteria can hide, then fit the gum tissues around the teeth.
Flap surgery reduces the space between the gum and tooth, limiting spaces where harmful bacteria can hide. This reduces the risk of health complications from periodontal disease.
During bone surgery, the dentist will smoothen the shallow crates in your bone to reduce advanced bone loss. After your flap surgery, the dentist will reshape the bone surrounding your teeth to minimise the craters, which makes bacterial growth difficult.
Sometimes, non-surgical procedures such as scaling and root planing effectively treat gum disease. Surgery may be necessary when surrounding teeth tissues are unhealthy and non-surgical options can’t repair the damage.
A bone graft procedure involves using donated bone, your bone fragments or synthetic bone to replace the damaged bone from gum disease. The grafted bone will help your bone regrow to make your teeth more stable.
Our dentist may use tissue engineering, a new technology for stimulating the bone for faster regeneration of bone and tissue.
During a soft tissue graft, the dentist will fill the spaces from your receded gums and add gum grafts to thin gum areas. In most cases, the graft tissue is from the roof of the mouth.
Guided tissue regeneration is necessary when the teeth are damaged. The procedure stimulates bone growth and gum tissue. When performed with flap surgery, the dentist will insert a mesh-like fabric between the bone and gum tissue to stop your gum tissue from growing into areas where you should have the bone. The connective tissue and bone will regrow to offer better support for the teeth.
The surgical treatments for gum disease are”
This procedure involves lifting back your gums to remove tartar. The dentist may smoothen irregular damaged bone surfaces to reduce areas bacteria can hide, then fit the gum tissues around the teeth.
Flap surgery reduces the space between the gum and tooth, limiting spaces where harmful bacteria can hide. This reduces the risk of health complications from periodontal disease.
During bone surgery, the dentist will smoothen the shallow crates in your bone to reduce advanced bone loss. After your flap surgery, the dentist will reshape the bone surrounding your teeth to minimise the craters, which makes bacterial growth difficult.
Sometimes, non-surgical procedures such as scaling and root planing effectively treat gum disease. Surgery may be necessary when surrounding teeth tissues are unhealthy and non-surgical options can’t repair the damage.
The dentist may recommend antibiotics with surgery and other treatments, or one of these options to reduce bacteria which cause gum disease, reduce or temporarily eliminate tooth and bone damage.
Chlorhexidine is an antibiotic that controls plaque and gingivitis in the periodontal pockets or plaques in the mouth. You may get this medication as a gelatine-filled chip placed in the gum pockets following your root planing. The chip will release the medication over seven days.
Other antibiotics for treating gum disease are doxycycline, minocycline, and tetracycline. You may also need other treatments like toothpaste that contain fluoride and antibiotics like triclosan to reduce plaque and gingivitis.
Most treatments for gum disease are at the dentist’s office. How long the treatment lasts, your healing period and the levels of discomfort vary from patient to patient, overall health and the extent of the procedure.
You can visit Thousand Smiles or call us on 020 8050 0280 to schedule an appointment with our dentist if you experience symptoms of gum disease.
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