When Does the Need for Periodontal Treatment Become Necessary?

The need for periodontal treatment will not begin chasing you unless you are affected by gum disease or periodontitis, a common infection affecting approximately 70 percent of Canadian adults. Gum disease damages the soft tissue and bone supporting the tooth. You can ignore gum disease and leave it untreated, but you must understand you risk losing the alveolar bone around the teeth gradually until it disappears eventually.

Gum disease or periodontitis generally affects the area around the tooth, along with the gums and bone. It results from bacteria and plaque buildup around the tooth and a reaction of the immune system. You can prevent gum disease with good dental hygiene, but if left untreated, you must prepare yourselves to undergo surgery if needed. Gum disease is associated with numerous other issues like heart disease, respiratory disease, cancer, and diabetes, and the chances of being affected by this condition increase with smoking.

Explaining Periodontal Treatment

Periodontal treatment aims to clean up bacteria from the pockets around the teeth to prevent further destruction of the bone and tissue. It is incredibly essential to follow good dental hygiene practice every day, even when the teeth and gums appear healthy. The aim is to prevent infections from affecting you. Proper dental hygiene entails brushing twice a day and flossing at least once.

If you have gapped teeth, you will benefit from using an interdental brush. Soft picks are useful if you don’t have sufficient space between the teeth. If you are affected by arthritis or any other problems, you can use an electric toothbrush for thorough cleaning.

If you intend to restore your periodontal health, it is essential to have plaque and calculus removed by a periodontist. You can visit the Markham dentist, who also offers periodontal services; they perform scaling and debridement for cleaning below the gum line. The periodontist may use ultrasonic devices or hand tools to break the plaque and calculus before serving root planing to smooth rough edges of the roots of your teeth. The risk of gum disease enhances if bacteria are allowed to accumulate in the rough patches.

You will be required to schedule a couple of appointments with the Markham dentist depending on how much plaque and tartar buildup you have allowed accumulating on your teeth. Dentists generally recommend cleaning twice a year or more after looking at your dental hygiene and the plaque buildup over a period.

Is Periodontal Treatment Useful?

If non-surgical periodontal treatment accompanied by good dental hygiene is not useful, the periodontist recommends surgical options which include the following:

Flap Surgery. Flap surgery helps to remove tartar from the deep pockets to reduce pocket depth and make cleaning easier. The tartar is removed by lifting your gums back. The gums are then stitched back to fit closely to the tooth. The surgery helps the gums to fit tightly around the tooth.

Bone and Tissue Grafts. Regenerating bone and gum tissue destroyed by the infection is the goal of this procedure. New synthetic or natural bone replaces the loss of bone to encourage bone growth.

Can Periodontal Treatment Be Prevented?

You cannot prevent periodontal treatment if you are affected by gum disease. However, you can undoubtedly do better by avoiding gum disease from affecting you as a measure to prevent expensive and intensive periodontal treatment.

If you maintain proper dental hygiene and disallow bacterial plaque to accumulate on the surface of your teeth, you can conveniently prevent the need for periodontal treatment. Periodontal treatment becomes necessary only because you are not caring for your dental hygiene appropriately. Brushing and flossing correctly and getting twice-yearly dental checkups is the best way to prevent gum disease from affecting you. The need for periodontal treatment does not arise if you keep gum disease at bay. However, allow it to infect you, and the choices before you are limited. You can either visit a periodontist to receive periodontal treatment or risk losing your jawbone and teeth to the condition to show off a toothless grin to everyone you confront. Needless to say, the missing teeth in your mouth cause various other issues that will leave you in an embarrassing situation. Under the circumstances, would you prefer receiving periodontal treatment or preventing gum disease from affecting altogether? We are confident you will select the latter and hope you never join the 70 percent of Canadians affected by this problem.