Treatment For Advanced Gum Disease

Root planing and ‘deep cleans’ can help save teeth affected by severe gum problems.

Most of us will have gum disease at some point in our life. Usually this is relatively minor and may be caused by a ‘drop off’ in the quality of our own oral hygiene. This may be due to an illness such as the flu which leaves us exhausted and our brushing and flossing routine can take a dip for this reason. Generally speaking though, once we are well again and we resume our cleaning regime, and of course see the hygienist at our Chelmsford dental practice for a scale and polish, things can soon be back on track.

This isn’t always the case though and especially for those who don’t follow a good oral health regime or who may be more prone to gum disease, such as diabetics and those with low immunity to infections. These people can find themselves with a more serious form of gum disease in the shape of periodontitis. While a scale and polish may help with this, it is not always the case and in today’s blog we will take a look at the options in this situation.

A word for the wise….

Before we look at the treatments that are available for this problem, we should emphasise that for most of us, gum disease is entirely preventable and without too much effort. By making sure that we brush our teeth well, use floss and have a professional clean by the dental hygienist every six months we should be able to avoid this.

Treating periodontitis

Let us presume that a scale and polish procedure is not sufficient to treat this problem and move on to the next options. Doing nothing is not really one of these as it is likely to result in eventual tooth loss. The only options available are a deep clean and root planing. Although often used as the general term of a ‘deep clean’, there are subtle differences.

These treatments require the specialist care of one of our Chelmsford periodontists who are trained to carry out this procedure. In some cases, local anesthetics may be needed.

The aim of this procedure is not just to remove built up tartar (hardened bacteria and minerals) from the tooth and the gum line, but to remove those that are now present beneath the gum line and around the roots of the tooth. Often cases this procedure won’t require any incisions to be made into the gums to access the tooth roots but this may be necessary in severe cases and gum surgery may be needed in some instances.

In most cases, once a local anaesthetic has been used and your gums are numb, special instruments are used not only to clean the teeth and gum line, but to reach beneath the gums too. This includes down to the roots of the teeth as when bacteria are located here, there is a higher risk of bone damage and this is how teeth become loosened from the bone and become loose and, possibly, eventually fall out.

The subtle difference between a ‘deep clean’ and ‘root planing’ is that a deep clean is carried out as above, whereas root planing also involves the smoothing of the roots so that the gums, which have often come away from teeth, allowing even more bacteria to enter, can reattach to the teeth and prevent this from happening.

Where incisions do have to be made, stitches are likely to be required and a longer healing period needed. For most patients who have had this treatment though, there may be some residual soreness following the procedure and you may wish to take your usual painkiller to help with this if needed. Generally, this should resolve itself fairly shortly though. Especially where cases of gum disease are particularly serious, even this treatment may not be enough and tooth loss is still a possibility. This is the only option available though and is successful in many cases. Should tooth loss occur, we do, of course, offer tooth replacement solutions at Blue Sky Dental such as teeth implants and can discuss these with you should the need arise.

Prevention is key

While it is good to know that we can attempt to treat more serious cases of gum disease, there is no doubt at all that it is much better to take steps to prevent it from happening in the first instance. As mentioned earlier, this is not that hard to do and just requires a little effort on the patient’s behalf. One of the best things that you can do if you have read this blog and realised that you perhaps haven’t been paying enough attention to your gums is to make an appointment to see our Chelmsford dental hygienist. This is an excellent way for you to start to get on the right track when it comes to looking after your gum health.

Not only will the hygienist carry out a professional clean that will remove tartar from the teeth and gum line but they will also be able to discuss your gum care and make recommendations to you on how to keep them healthy. This can include toothpaste recommendations, brushing techniques and they may also demonstrate how to use floss correctly; something some people find a little difficult to do.

We recommend this to all of our patients, but if you are exhibiting potential symptoms of gum disease, such as bleeding of the gums or soreness, it is especially important that you do so as soon as possible to avoid the need for the more invasive deep clean or root planing.

For further advice for this or to book your appointment with our local hygienist team, please call Blue Sky Dental today on 01245 211070.