Reversing the Damage of Advanced Periodontal Disease

Gingivitis can be annoying, periodontal disease can be painful, and advanced periodontal disease can be devastating.

Taking care of your teeth is just a part of maintaining overall oral hygiene. The tongue and gums should also be cared for as they can harbor some nasty bacteria that leads to infection.

And if the infections are not addressed early on, they can spread, causing all sorts of havoc in your mouth, including losing teeth and infecting bones.

Causes of Advanced Periodontal Disease

Advanced periodontal disease, or advanced gum disease, stems from an infection that was not contained and eliminated. The infection has spread, damaging tissue throughout your gums and possibly infecting the bone.

The infection itself may come from one of several different situations, including poor oral hygiene, poorly fitting dental implants, and accidents.

Plaque, the waste left by bacteria, fosters more bacterial growth and provides a haven for them. When it hardens to form tartar, it provides more protection for the bacteria, allowing it to spread further.

Treating Advanced Periodontal Disease in Houston

At the earlier stages of gum disease, gingivitis and periodontitis, antibiotics, deep cleaning, and proper hygiene are usually enough to clear up any infection and get your mouth back to normal.

Instead, surgical procedures are needed to remove the infection at its source: clusters of bacteria under the gum line.

When tartar hardens along the gum line, it can become nearly impossible to root out the bacteria below, clinging to the roots of the teeth.

As such, it can grow virtually unchecked.

This can lead to pockets of infected tissue, and they can cause gums to swell and become painfully tender.

What’s worse is that these pockets can cause changes to your gums themselves. They may deteriorate, causing teeth to become loose or fall out. The gums may also change color from pink to purple.

Eventually, the infection can reach the jawbone.

This is where advanced periodontal disease is at its worst. If it infects the bones of your jaw, bone grafts may be needed to repair the damage and keep the bones from supplying infected blood.

Other treatments for advanced periodontal disease include flap surgery and guided tissue regeneration.

Available Treatments in Houston

Grafts, both soft tissue and bone, are used to replace tissue or bone that has been damaged with other tissue or bone from the patient them self, a donor, or with synthetic material.

Flap surgery uses small incisions in the gums to peel up a flap of tissue and treat the infection underneath. This method is very direct and allows the dentist to scale the teeth (scrape the bacteria out) and contour the roots (root planing).

Guided Tissue Regeneration uses a bio compatible fabric that encourages gum tissue to grow while preventing anything else from growing. It is primarily used to strengthen the areas of the gums where teeth are at risk of falling out.

These methods of treatment are available at dental offices in Houston and while they may be uncomfortable, especially in the case of grafts, they are often necessary to protect your teeth from falling out.

A skilled Houston dentist can perform these treatments along with sedation dentistry to reduce the amount of discomfort experience, saving the teeth from further damage.

After the procedure, proper oral hygiene at home will prevent this condition from reappearing in the future.