Gum Therapy

close up of woman smiling and flossing

Gum disease is a common but serious condition that can cause major damage to the bone and tissue surrounding your teeth. Symptoms include bad breath, red or swollen gums, bleeding, tenderness, and loose teeth. Gum disease can also increase your risk of heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure.

That’s why it’s important to prioritize your periodontal (gum) health by visiting your dentist regularly to receive professional teeth cleaning and plaque control. Patients should also be committed to taking care of their teeth and gums through regular brushing and flossing between visits. More severe cases of gum disease can be treated with procedures like tissue grafting that protect and restore receding gum lines.

What is Periodontal disease?

Periodontal disease is an infection of the tissues that support your teeth. Some of the symptoms include:

  • Bad breath that won’t go away
  • Red or swollen gums
  • Tender or bleeding gums
  • Painful chewing
  • Loose teeth
  • Sensitive teeth

How does Periodontal disease affect you?

Uncontrolled gum disease can have some serious effects on your health – increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure. Pregnant women have a greater incidence of delivering preterm or low birth weight babies, and diabetics have greater difficulty controlling their blood sugar levels. Also, surgeons now require organ transplant patients to have a clean bill of periodontal health before receiving a transplant.

How do you treat Periodontal disease?

The best way to treat this bacterial disease is with meticulous plaque control and regular professional cleaning.

Together we’ll come up with a personalized treatment plan, taking your specific risk factors into account, including current health status, medications, lifestyle, and past medical history.

Dental Implants

Dental implants are a standard part of advanced dentistry and are used to replace missing teeth. They are a safe and aesthetic alternative to traditional crown and bridgework with success rates above 95%.

Prosthetic teeth placed onto implants look and feel like natural teeth while offering comfort, security, and confidence.

Ridge Augmentation

When a tooth is required to be extracted, we recommend a ridge preservations procedure to temporarily stabilize and preserve the existing bone.

If this procedure is not performed at the time the tooth is removed, the bone can resorb creating insufficient space for a dental implant. This can result in more expensive, invasive, time consuming, and uncomfortable procedures in the future.

Correcting Gummy Smiles

In periodontal literature a gummy smile is known as excess gingival display. This can occur for many different reasons but ultimately it results in the display of too much gums during a natural smile. In most cases this is accompanied by short looking teeth. In those cases it’s important to understand that the teeth are not actually short, they are just covered with gum tissue which give the appearance of short teeth. This condition can be corrected by several different methods including crown lengthening, gingivectomy, Botox, orthognathic surgery, or lip repositioning.

Tissue Grafting

Tissue grafting uses a series of procedures to restore or prevent further deterioration of a receding gum line. Recession can be noticed when the root surfaces of a tooth become exposed. This can lead to uneven gum lines, sensitivity of the teeth, or an unaesthetic smile.

There are several different types of tissue grafting procedures along with different surgical techniques. Our doctors are familiar and trained to choose the procedure and technique that is right for you.