GUM DISEASE

Gingivitis Symptoms

Periodontal disease, also called gum disease, affects the gums and teeth. The word “periodontal” comes from Greek – “perio” means “around” and “dontal” means “tooth.” Gingivitis is the beginning stages of gum disease, and you can still reverse the affects of gingivitis at this stage.

Patients sometimes notice their gums bleed easily when they brush and floss, and gums may also be swollen and tender to the touch. With more advanced gum disease patients may expegum diseaserience gums pulling away from the teeth, chronic bad breath, a change in their bites or loose permanent teeth. In severe cases patients may even suffer tooth loss.

Causes of Gum Disease

Let’s back up for a moment to discuss how you may get gingivitis or gum disease. Plaque, a sticky, colorless film, builds up on our teeth. Plaque is constantly forming, and it’s our job to remove it by routine flossing and brushing. When we fail to remove plaque in our mouths, it accumulates and starts irritating and inflaming our gums. You may notice gum inflammation around just one tooth or around several. Gum disease is a bacterial infection.

We Can Help If You Are Suffering From Gingivitis

Gingivitis, as we said before, is the milder form of gum disease. If you’ve been diagnosed with gingivitis, there’s still time to eradicate its presence. Our registered dental hygienists will remove plaque with micro-ultrasonics and cleaning instruments. This technology is more satisfying and less invasive to our patients than the antiquated techniques of hand scaling alone. Scaling may help remove plaque, but the gum tissue is already infected. Our team uses micro-ultrasonics to irrigate the gum pockets and flush bacteria from them. We also use laser dentistry to vaporize infected gum tissue and stimulate the body’s immune response. The body will then begin to heal itself. We use gentle anesthetics to relax our patients, but there’s virtually no discomfort with our periodontal disease treatment methods. Our Hygienists will keep one eye on your comfort and the other on giving you thorough complete care.

Our goal is for you to achieve healthy pink gums.

Treatment sessions will vary with each patient, depending on the severity of pocketing, inflammation, bleeding and swelling.

We discuss gum health and the importance of flossing with our patients at every visit. Our gums are the foundation for our teeth, and they deserve proper care and attention. If your gums bleed, swell or look bright red when you brush and floss, it’s definitely time to come in for a visit. We can assess your gum health and help you achieve healthy gums for a lifetime.

Please don’t “wait till it hurts” before contacting us. Periodontal disease is similar to high blood pressure, in the way it can progress without notice until there is a serious problem. If you are experiencing bleeding gums when brushing or flossing, bad breath, or haven’t been to the dentist in over a year, please call us today — we may be able to help you avoid more extensive treatment in the future by taking action now.